I remember back in school, somewhere around grade 11, we were taught about a writing style called “stream of consciousness.” If you’re not familiar with the concept, the general idea is to write whatever comes to mind without delay. Writing every internal thought, even if it doesn’t necessarily fit the idea of the paragraph you’re in. The result reads like a somewhat random and chaotic piece, on the surface anyways.
As you read through your writing (or better yet, someone else’s) you’re able to cut through the level of confusion though and you’re actually able to follow the train of thought. The piece will read like a narrative of the writer’s mind. When done right, the effect is incredibly impressive.
What’s interesting to me is that different modes of artistic expression can usually transcend the medium. By this, I mean to say that methods and techniques of getting your ideas out could work for writing, music, painting, etc.
Enter Gucha Gucha. This line of t-shirts looks, at first glance, like a thousand ideas all scribbled onto a shirt at once. It looks like graffiti that’s been marked up for review by your grade 4 grammar teacher. It looks to me, like stream of consciousness on a shirt.
Sit and look at one of their tees for a few minutes though. You’ll start picking out themes and repeated elements. It starts to make sense, but you can never “get it” all the way. It’s ever so slightly un-nerving. You can see it. You have all the time in the world to analyze it, but you can’t quite make sense out of it totally. I can’t get into the artist’s head. Honestly, we’re probably not supposed to.
I think that’s the charm in Gucha Gucha. Unlike most t-shirts I see these days, there’s a ton of wiggle room for interpretation. You and I will see something different and if we sat down and talked to the designer, he would likely tell us he had something else in mind when he made the shirt.
Most of Gucha Gucha’s shirts are in the €15-€22 range, and come out of Madrid. Neither of the two designers is native to Europe, one hailing from Japan and the other from Argentina. Maybe it’s the fusion of cultures that gives birth to such interesting tees. I’m not sure, but they’re worth a look either way.
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