Monday 2 July 2018

TGRAPHICS 1990-2014 A History of Undercover T Graphics



Edition : First / Tokyo / Undercover / 2014 / Hardcover. / Near Fine / Near Fine
Small Folio, 300pp. Cloth in Slipcase. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Text in English and Japanese.

A brilliant document of the street roots of Undercover. Takahashi- "My memory is very vague, but it will have been 25 years this year or next year since Undercover started. Officially I made 1990 the year of the launch. I think it is just OK. Anyway, 25 years ago, I was a student at Bunka fashion college. Together with my friend at school, I made a start with a T-Shirt design with a crown in the shape of the word 'undercover'. I still remember vividly that we took down a 'most wanted' photo of a person belonging to some organisation on the premises of Koenji station, and jointly collaged it. This was the memorable first work of undercover. For a few years after that, since the computer was not widespread yet, we printed t-shirts using manual labour. We copied graphics with a copy machine at a convenience store, cut the copied graphics with scissors and pasted them, arrangig words with dry transfer lettering. Then we brought the finished artwork to an art store to have it silk screened for t-shirts. We diligently printed t-shirts one by one in our apartment every day. Since the workplace was our apartment, the bathroom naturally became the place to wash screens. Although we were finally able to move to an apartment with a bathroom, which we had dreamed of, we soon filled the bathtub with sludge. This is a good memory now... ...On the milestone of 25 years history, I have the honour of providing you with a compilation of my work. I am happy if you will feel something from it..."