This is Us is Dodorowski
Dodorowski’s trademark irreverence for the system comes into play in this collaboration with the artist. We got interested in the religious symbolism around the city and after a shared moment of inspiration with the film maker/visual artist, decided to join him on a journey to creating yet another satirical piece but this time on our T-Shirts. Black T-Shirts.
Before we go into the full story, let’s take a glimpse into the field of madness for visual artist, painter, Dodorowski. He is the alter associate of notable filmmaker Abba Makama, whose films Green White Green and Lost Okoroshi and work with the surreal16 collective are among the most provoking creative content coming out of Nigeria 🇳🇬. They remind us that to be young means to be wildly imaginative not giving two f*ks about what mommy and daddy have to say about your desecration of their high ideals.
Here’s some of their magic:
And now, back to our joint with Dodorowski.
We were just coming off of some riffs of the MFM logo — Oroma was feeling it and was inspired by it as a symbol of vigour and resilience. Yankee was saying “Make America great again” and our friend Sadiq Okocha was saying “Make Nigeria Great Again” So we decided we would say “Make Nigeria Great Again, but put some fire on the mountain”.
Dodorowski was feeling the p too, so he jumped on it and came with the colour! Couple outlines with his protractor and a few brush strokes of the pastel colours of the celestial church of Christ logo, black outlines of the crown, the cross and the all seeing eye and we arrived at the essence of a Dodorowski classic- a mash up of beautiful colour and provoking visuals.
All we needed to do was add our custom This is us is Dodorowski text to fully appropriate the cele symbolism and then plaster the design on a black version of our iconic Funtua tee to make it great. More on the all black thing below.
The tee comes in 2 versions, one with the colourful chest badge printed on, another with the iconography and text in white printed boldly onto the front of the shirt and a third ultra special version with the badge on the front and the bold white design on the back.
SHOP THE BOLD DESIGN
After almost 6 weeks of isolating because of the Covid pandemic we were visiting Dodorowski to model the shirts so we could finally launch the joint. Ironically he had a life size painting on canvas which features the colours on the cele badge design. Ghen ghen. Perfect backdrop to capture the mosaic of Dodorowski’s madness. After some music, electric shocks from set lighting, a screening of Jojo Rabbit, all the while attempting to physically distance, we shot the icon and his work just as the sun was setting at his Lekki palace. Shout out Philip and Abdulai for holding up the back drop.
Just before we left, as we reviewed the photos and Dodorowski played with his collection of swords (he gifted us one by the way) we decided that the painting backdrop made such a great compliment to the collection of tees so we would offer it for sale.
We recently caught up with Dodorowski on global goth day — nothing special here as the diabolical creative is constantly in head-to-toe black anyway. He had a pair of perfectly cut black trousers on, black-black lose tee, jet black short dreads and his wicked beautiful smile against his dark skin. He was ready to play.
After almost 6 weeks of isolating because of the Covid pandemic we were visiting Dodorowski to model the shirts so we could finally launch the joint. Ironically he had a life size painting on canvas which features the colours on the cele badge design. Ghen ghen. Perfect backdrop to capture the mosaic of Dodorowski’s madness. After some music, electric shocks from set lighting, a screening of Jojo Rabbit, all the while attempting to physically distance, we shot the icon and his work just as the sun was setting at his Lekki palace. Shout out Philip and Abdulai for holding up the back drop.
Just before we left, as we reviewed the photos and Dodorowski played with his collection of swords (he gifted us one by the way) we decided that the painting backdrop made such a great compliment to the collection of tees so we would offer it for sale.
SHOP THE PAINTING
It feels good to be doing black at a time like this and the collaboration feels right for now — an unprecedented time in which humanity seems close to finally making black lives matter and embracing the full spectrum of colour that we all bring to the table.
Crazy love
This is us is Dodorowski
Not to be outdone, an avid Michael Jackson fan, Dodorowski shot some eerie nighttime photos styled in all black, slim pants and white socks shooting into his uniform doc martens.
It feels good to be doing black at a time like this and the collaboration feels right for now — an unprecedented time in which humanity seems close to finally making black lives matter and embracing the full spectrum of colour that we all bring to the table.
Crazy love
This is us is Dodorowski