THE Dutch artist Roy Villevoye has a thing with T-shirts. The garment regularly pops up in his work.
During his travels in Papua-New-Guinea he discovered that the people of the Asmat deliberately tore up their T-shirts. Villevoye collected two dozen of the ragged shirts. The Asmats start wearing clothes in course of twentieth century. Some think that the rips are a substitute for the scarification the Asmat traditionally performed on their skin. Villevoye only collected the tees on the first day of his visit of a village, reducing the chance that locals started to rip their clothes for a quick buck.

One of the nicest of the torn tees is a dirty, white one. The rips are in a vertical series in the belly of the shirt. Another one has the words ‘Terrorsquade, The United States Athletics Division’ printed on it. There a two big cuts on the shoulders. A blue T-shirt, with big sweat stains, has rips in the form of a half circle on the front. The cloth falls out, exposing the Asmat flesh.

Another example is the work ‘Jimi & Ndo’. Twenty separate photo’s show a day in the life of the Papua Ndo. He’s sitting in a boat, walks by the river, and chills in a white garden chair. What makes the photo special is the shirt Ndo is wearing. The front of the tee is completely covered with a portrait of Jimi Hendrix and with the gestures of Ndo, Jimi follows.

The torn tees of the Asmat

A detail of the work ‘Jimi & Ndo’