Apotropaic Brainwaves
A freewheeling conversation with visual artist and composer Mark Mothersbaugh.
Greetings New Dimensions readers! Recently I had the pleasure of chatting with visual artist, musician and collector Mark Mothersbaugh, on the eve of the release of his new art book Apotropaic Beatnik Graffiti. It’s always a pleasure getting to chat with Mark, especially when it comes to his visual art, a subject not often broached enough. But then again, when you’re one of the founding members of DEVO (not to mention a renowned composer of soundtracks and film and TV scores), it’s easy to see how writers can focus on those accomplishments.
Being a fellow artist and collector, I’ve enjoyed conversing with Mark about all sorts of subjects. As Mark has said in prior conversations, back when DEVO was on tour in the eighties, his downtime between gigs was spent creating art and looking for interesting objects and records, and both have remained strong passions of his, forty years later, which I feel comes across in this freewheeling dialogue.
The conversation below took place earlier this year in Manhattan, and I’m pleased to say it covers a wide swath of topics, from early life growing up in Akron and art influences to Kent State and moving to Los Angeles with DEVO, all the way up to his new book Apotropaic Beatnik Graffiti and Mark’s longtime interest in mail art, and that just scratches the surface. There are, of course, musical digressions, including talk on our shared love of Muzak (those who read New Dimensions have no doubt read my prior write-ups on the history of mood music), and even some DEVO tales buried within, most of which should be new to readers.
Enjoy!
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