I Wear What I Want: Susan Barnett

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

May 19, 2017 – September 2, 2017

I Wear What I Want features over 100 images by NYC-based photographer Susan Barnett. The exhibition, composed of color photographs from Barnett’s Not In Your Face series, explores how the messages and graphics we choose to wear on t-shirts provide a window into our sense of style, personal philosophies and values. Barnett states that her subjects are “human billboards that advertise purposes in life, philosophies that drive us, ideologies we attest to. They are calls for action, they are calls home, they might be to honor a fallen hero, the death of a celebrity. They are the soundtrack of a city, a visual newspaper.”
The photographer traveled the U.S. and abroad to capture intriguing individuals wearing an array of styles and catchy phrases that range from raunchy text to campy cartoon imagery. Not only vehicles of personal expression, these t-shirts exhibit messages that illustrate the complex polarities of thought currently existing within the nation. Many of the screenprinted shirts pictured in Barnett’s images are emblazoned with in-your-face language that convey a spectrum of beliefs; issues of race, unyielding politics, and religion are prominently featured in these collected images. Barnett’s subjects, bodies of all shapes, ages and sizes, are pictured from behind. The messages and graphics embraced by these individuals include celebrity idolization, sexual braggadocio, rebellious pronouncements and even nods to artistic masterpieces.