The other night, Stacey and I went to the Rabbit Hole Gallery to see a Mark Mothersbaugh show. If you don't know, Mothersbaugh is a founding member of Devo, the 80s eletronic band with a great sense of humor. The show was named Beautiful Mutents. Mothersbaugh has recently been writing music for Tim Burton movies and the television show Rug Rats. He has probably been doing lots of work I don't even know about. For the last ten years, he has also produced prints of images made with a technic he has developed. He uses antique photos and a computer to create some very hauntingly beautiful works of art. Most pieces are portraits of one or more people. He stretches out or shrinks up the original image to make a face look slightly wider or more narrow. This gives the subject a freakish look. A tight tiny, face may appear to have pinched eyes or a fellow in a suit, wearing a hat is streched out enough to add a third leg. Hence "Beautiful Mutants".
The pieces looked very antique. The edge of some prints was faded and the frames were carved from dark wood. Old style gold print identified and dated some of the pieces. The names of a few of the pieces are "Baby Hoodie-Hoo, Portage County Trailer Park", "Halfway Sammy", "Two Suitors for Honeysuckle". The pieces ranged in price from $300 to $800.
Stacey and I purchased one named "Fairy Queen, Lisboa". It was one of the larger ones. The lady in it reminded us of an antique Mardi Gras Queen holding her hands in the air. And with our connections to Mobile Mardi Gras, we couldn't resist.
It was a really good show, I am glad we heard about it. We did not go with the intention of buying a piece but liked them so much we must have one.
Mothersbaugh was not there but the soundtrack was a special recording he had made for the art show. It was heavy organ music, quite fitting for the art.
Ingenuity Cleveland is hosting the next Mothersbaugh showing.
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