“The T-shirt is the ‘lowest form of self-expression.’” He can’t quite remember where he read it, but that idea sticks in Eric Mast’s mind as one of the interests behind Dreem Street. A loose series of limited edition tees, each Dreem Street design carries an illustration that has been hand drawn onto screens with drawing fluid and screen filler, and printed either in Mast’s basement workshop or at his co-conspirator Matthew Chambers’ headquarters in L.A. (Mast notes that L.A.’s climate has the advantage; things dry much faster there.)
Though Dreem has been around since 2010, it’s largely absent of the pressures of business, hewing closer to its identity as an art project, in part because Mast and Chambers—longtime friends who share a background in DIY punk and skateboard culture—are in constant motion with other, simultaneous projects. Mast, who also performs and DJs as E*Rock, has long been an established presence in visual art and music, designing poster art and animation as well as performing his own music and founding the Audio Dregs label in 1996. Chambers, meanwhile, works full-time as a painter, and the dichotomy between his big canvases selling for thousands of dollars while a Dreem Street tee will run you all of 20 bucks folds right into their amusement with thumbing around at the weak junctions between art, commerce, and lifestyle.
Part of the appeal of the Dreem system is the fact that Mast and Chambers can use it as a stomping ground for experimentation, punching out a few renditions of one idea before moving on to the next without having committed a significant portion of resources—a typical design only ever makes it onto eight to 15 T-shirts. “It’s a way to process ideas and make things that will end up in your friends’ houses,” says Mast—unlike, say, most of those pricier gallery canvases. Production is driven purely by competition between the two of them. Mast handles the web/commerce end, and will periodically receive boxes of new work in the mail from Chambers, thereby inspiring him to pick up his own pace and maintain what’s roughly a 50/50 ratio of output.
Designs range from painterly to a tighter, busier graphic aesthetic, but all are littered with cultural reference—Jackie Chan, The Anarchist Cookbook, Fred Astaire, Freud, Apple, and the Marx Brothers have all made appearances, alongside reflexology, Oktoberfest, I-Ching, ant farms, holiday wreaths, and a map of Italy emblazoned with the word “pizza.” Fake fan shirts are another specialty, including tributes to obscure cultural touchstones, Maison Martin Margiela, and Seinfeld.
One design that seems to be taking hold is the “Bands” T-shirt. It began with Mast wanting to make a back patch for a denim jacket, which led him to thinking of what a big deal it used to be to have the crustiest punk band represented across your shoulders—and what does that kind of music do at this point for the kids who’ve newly adopted it? What does youth culture even look like anymore? As part statement and part question, he wound up with what he calls a “band tee for the YouTube generation,” a collage of band logos chosen for visual recognition more so than Mast’s own musical preferences, with Suicidal Tendencies sharing space with Outkast, Aerosmith, and Slayer. A collaborative design with Yung Zine was also conceived in response, repeating a backwards Nike swoosh over names: Morrissey, Blondie, Aphex Twin, Mazzy Star.
Lest we get too caught up in cultural commentary, though, Dreem also does not remove itself from the expectation that these are pieces to be worn, and as such have tested the shirts to find the best for both lending themselves to the process and delivering the right fit. American Apparel was abandoned when the company dropped their preferred cut, with Kenya-produced Canvas shirts currently taking up the duty by virtue of their “neutral, not super stylized” look, though the ultimate goal is to create a pattern and produce their own.
The tees sometimes make appearances at shops like Rad Summer, but most people are left to discover Dreem Street by following crumb trails on the internet or word of mouth; there hasn’t been much in the way of marketing in the usual sense. The T-shirts have had one outing displayed at a Los Angeles art event, but have never been formally introduced in Portland. This month that is rectified, with Floating World Comics hosting a Dreem Street show through the month, featuring the shirts themselves, a selection of Mast’s prints on paper (a sneak peek of which reveals a nature motif rendered in varying combinations of contrastingly inorganic neon), photographic prints by Los Angeles artist Ben Goddard, in which the shirts make cameo appearances, and the possible inclusion of a proper essay on the “Bands” shirt’s meaning. (One gets the sense Mast wants to get it off his chest once and for all after having had to explain it too many times to drunk people at bars—a process he admits can be “hard.”) Dreem Street opens Thursday, March 6 with a reception at Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch, 6-9 pm.