T-Shirt fair, cool-funky-weird-nasty Israeli culture
Early shoppers at T-Shirt fairIn the city there is a non-conformist group living right amongst the everyday life of a normal "straight" metropolis. These tattooed, pierced and leather clad people spotted here and there in upscale restaurant and stores, also congregate in the "grungy" parts. On a hot September morning I headed to the industrial zone where you would buy cars and have Harleys fixed. At the parking lot for the Barzilai club, an annual T-shirt sale was going on. Sixty T-Shirt designers and twenty accessory designers and stores gathered to show their creations. The designs were mostly original with a few designers using known images of famous people or items. There were a few interesting designs using special materials. The styles varied from Zionist / Jewish designer with "pick your Jew" with traditional Kafka, Einstein and Ben Gurion all the way to Japanese Anime images with the classic biker / Harley mainstay thrown in.
T-Shirt fair poster Prices for the T-shirts run from 50 to 200 shekels. The elaborate shirts with the complicated designs or special material fetching more (95% of the shirts were cotton). For the most part, Tel Aviv is a tame town when it comes to the "grungy" crowd. But in a country where uniformity has been so steady - for so long, in education, military, economy and work, there is a strong minority that wants to bend the norms. But there is also a sense of creativity and artistry that does not have outlets in other media. The print and movie sectors are small here, so all these artists need something to put their work "on". So some end up on T-Shirts, original-funky-weird...
I leaned something interesting talking to the designers. They don't seem to feel a great deal of angst and anger or even despair in getting these design out. But they do seem to want a message and a style "on the street", not necessarily to make a statement, as much as to be heard. There were very few "protest" images for the violence and the political situation. I asked why and most people say that it's not that useful to protest what seem to be an inevitable situation between the Israeli government and the Arab world (both Palestinian and Arab states). The other interesting thing is how they network and congregate. They seem to be everywhere and they keep in touch informally by e-Mail and SMS. So keep an eye on the street on announcements for funky-weird-cool craft/arts fairs and enjoy the creativity -- in the city //AmiV
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