For Fall 2016, Devendra Banhart has contributed to COMUNE’s Drop City program by adapting an original piece of art to one of our 40 single tees.
Rather than plac¬ing a complete piece work on the front of a shirt, COMUNE worked with Banhart on using an exploded view of a smaller section creating a more organic pattern to the print. We are very pleased and happy to be working with Banhart, and look out for more contributions in the near future.
For almost a decade, Devendra Banhart’s genre-bending psychedelic freak folk has turned the music world on its head. The LA-based singer songwriter is the em¬bodiment of creativity leaving his indelible fingerprint on both sound and vision. Banhart’s talents extend beyond music to include drawing, painting, curating both domestic and international arts shows and more recently tattooing.
Each piece is a direct reflection of a weird world teetering on the brink of the mythic, cosmic and vastly abstract. For this contribution, Banhart cites ancient alchemist H. Pee as an inspiration for his experiment with space and shape. The redundant mix of fixed color planes converge to create order out of chaos and derive a “spatial experience” seen primarily in late cubism. The result is the manifestation of freedom, a word synonymous with Banhart’s work both on the stage and off.
Inspired by the early 1960’s artist commune in Colorado, COMUNE’s Drop City gal¬lery is housed in a structure of recycled steel shipping containers. Drop City was introduced to attract like-minded creative people to the COMUNE artist community and contribute through COMUNE’s clothing brand. Over time Drop City will continue to evolve its’ community, creative platform and influence.
COMUNE was formed from the idea that there will always be people out there who not only embrace the rawness and imperfections of the everyday life, but also use it to creatively push the boundaries of what’s possible in skateboarding, fashion, art, and music their own way, with complete disregard of the consequences.
The goal of COMUNE is to provide clothing that reflects this lifestyle of carefree idealism and to support the people that choose to live it. The COMUNE website (thecomune.com) provides the most complete view of the brand and its’ unique creative community.
See Devendra Banhart's work.
Photos & text Copyright Comune.