Alchemyst: karl would have bought this shirt (+video)

To expand our field of abilities, we did experiment with some fabric printing techniques in the past months. The result is a limited number of hand-printed t-shirts, bearing the face of "Communist Manifesto" author Karl Marx on the back. The intention we had while sketching, printing and working in the darkroom was - put simply - to get out some selfmade goods we would also appreciate. Also there is now a way to support our activities so we can continue with taking analog photos, shoot tons of footy and travel to connect with other minds around the globe. All of this is not for free - unfortunately.

This leads to our decision to put the iconic Marx on our first shirts. Countless times, he has been made responsible for the horrors that went along with the Soviet regime. But anyone who has read his works and studied Marx's philosophy realizes that the politics of the Soviet regime were the opposite of the world he imagined. A world in which not capital is the driving force behind everything - but creative and fulfilling work. Where one is not governed by another but power over people is only executed by all people. This was also the promise of modern-day-democracies. You can judge by yourself how far this promise has been fulfilled.

Not all of his thoughts can be applied to our modern societies, but when Marx's texts began to be released in the 19th century, they gave instant voice to countless oppressed workers. Today we have the same situation. The workers are not in Europe or America, they work in massive factories overseas, producing goods they will never be able to afford. What Karl Marx showed in his analysis are the fundamental mechanisms of capitalism and which social problems arise from it, having their source in alienation from the product and the isolated individual - something that can be easily observed in our everyday world.

Hence the DIY approach we wanted to apply to our own stuff. While it might'd been easier to just get the shirts printed, we've made the extra effort. Using the linocut technique, you can sort of feel the printing process from the product itself.

Every shirt comes with a photoprint on high quality Ilford paper, giving a lookout on the next video project that is going to be finished soon - the all night time video "Na guade nocht".