HNH 2002: Timespan T-shirts

2002, sixty-nine silkscreened t-shirts
Adult size Small, Medium, Large, X-Large

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Humanitarians Not Heroes introduces Timespan T-shirts that mark birth and death dates of notable artists and individuals, as well as significant events and eras in history. They are available with the begin-to-end numbers of such notables as Marcel Duchamp, Oscar Wilde, Michel Foucault, Sarah Bernhardt, Amelia Earhart, Joey Ramone, and the Great Depression.

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These colorful tees are meant to be overtly fun, socio-political, and, educational. Similar to the pretty pies in a game of Trivial Pursuit, "time-span" t-shirts are color-coded according to seven categories: Gray/red for artists; Green/yellow for philosophers, thinkers, and scientists; Red/purple for musicians; Navy/white for writers; Orange/light grey for cinema, entertainers, and celebrities; Beige/brown for other historical figures; and Light blue/orange for events, eras, and periods.

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The numbers on each shirt represent both the specific and arbitrary. They hint at the actions and accomplishments of individuals as much as they are general reminders of our mortality. As markers of history, they consider such things as achievement, stardom, and ignominy. As just a bunch of numbers, they are vague (No where is the name of the individual disclosed except on the removable label card). It is up to us to ascribe a value to them. Here, they apply to chronological value - Time. It is numerical Time - the big dasher and parenthesizer of all things - that these shirts ultimate glorify. For worse or better.