SHIRT, ‘The Spoken Word’

Longtime collaborator, rapper, visual artist & fellow “Queens, NYC” resident - Shirt - was nominated as the official first resident of La Maison de la Chapelle.

Shirt NYC while filming.

Longtime collaborator, rapper, visual artist & fellow “Queens, NYC” resident – Shirt, AKA George Steven – was nominated as the official first resident of La Maison de la Chapelle to focus on a film project. His project – which was a collaboration with director & the program’s founder Garen Barsegian – involved deconstructing two of his tracks, ‘718 To The World’ & ‘Marni Invisibility Cloak’ in order to focus on the power of the spoken word and the process by which he creates songs.

Location Scouting

"Who gets to be called an artist? and What is considered art?" - SHIRT

Shirt while filming at l'Abbaye du Thoronet

Shirt’s work spans across rap music, sculpture, video, photography, painting, sculpture, and performance. Engaging with critical issues in culture, value structures, and erasure across the diasporic experience, Shirt explores modes of social critique and resistance that consider ways of unlearning and seeks to propose questions such as: Who gets to be called an artist? and What is considered art?

Through a series of quiet, often private live performances, lyric formation and breakdowns, ‘718 To The World’ becomes a meditation on the profound connection between artists and their creative process. Set in Provence, France in the maze garden of Château d’Entrecasteaux, the Abbaye du Thoronet, as well as the grounds of the newly opened artist residency program La Maison de la Chapelle, SHIRT unveils where ideas are conceived, manifestos take shape, and entire worlds are constructed.