November 24, 2014- Mark Mothersbaugh- Total Immersion-Denver

Taking advantage of a relatively warm and clear day Saturday, my husband and I did another downtown Denver art day.  We started at the Museum of Contemporary Art, a venue that never disappoints, its shows always stimulating and thought-provoking.  

No exception-Myopia, a retrospective of Mark Mothersbaugh’s work.  Filling all three floors of the museum, all walls, floors and even stairwells, with Mothersbaugh’s incredibly prolific work, the rooms also vibrated with the video sights and sounds of DEVO, a band that he co-founded in the 1970's.  

Media used included rubber stamps, postcards, screen prints, photographs, videos, sculptures (one with sound), art journals, letters, rugs, and ceramics.

Untitled 1980

His general artist statement revealed that he is severely myopic and was not given eyeglasses until the second grade.  A recurrent theme in the show has to do with vision and mirror imaging.  A student at Kent State at the time of theNational Guard shooting, he and several classmates created a theory of “devolution” evidenced in his print and video work as an extreme contrast between the “American dream” and actual events going on in the country, making his work political.

His interest in mirror images included The Beautiful Mutants, small cameo photographs made by making mirror images of one half of a person’s face or photograph and, more recently, a fiberglass sculpture and an actual mirror image car.

50 Foot Tall Scale Models of Proposed Farewell Arches to Luxembourg City, 2014

Three sculptures used disparate parts such as vintage organ pipes, steel, electronics, vintage bird calls.  Mechanical  Aviary periodically erupted with shrill bird calls.

(l-r) Mechanical Aviary, The General, Finky 2014

Mechanical Aviary-Detail

One entire darkened room was devoted to the postcards, art works Mothersbaugh has been making since the 1970’s and producing one to twenty-five postcards/day ever since.  These were presented in looseleaf-type books placed on the floor on raised platforms.  The postcards are not only a kind of art journal but also have provided the inspiration for other art works.

A large ceramic installation called Spin Chain the Gears featured gnome-like figures he calls Rolo Polis arranged in a kind of dance formation.

And then there were the rugs.

When we left the museum, our heads were reeling from the stimulation of sight and sound.  Believe it or not, we continued on to several galleries but that’s a topic for another day.