THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016 LIFE +ARTS What’s Everything you LIFE+TRAVEL happening this need to know austin360 FOOD+LIFE weekend? See about summer D austin360.com the Planner, D2 camp. Friday

VISUAL ARTS

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Mark Mothers- baugh — co-founder and lead sing- er of Devo — will exhibit his artwork, in- cluding“My Little Pony,” at the Contem- porary Austin.

Since the 1970s, Moth- ersbaugh has created postcard-size artworks daily.

The rugs originate from the postcard drawings.

The“Boo- ji Boy”rubber mask (left), plastic wig (center) and plastic flow- er pot hat that were sta- ples of Devo’s look. JAY JANNER PHOTOS / AMERI- CAN-STATESMAN

ByJeanne Claire van Ryzin “Somebody pointed a gun at us [email protected] when we were on stage,” Mothers- baugh said recently with a good-na- MULTIMEDIA The first time Mark Mothersbaugh tured shrug. came to Austin was in 1978. “It was a different time,” he said, He was the frontman for Devo, the resuming with the finishing touch- influential w-ne wave band formed es on “Mark Mothersbaugh: Myopia,” with fellow art students at Ohio’s the definitive retrospective exhibit of Kent State University. his sprawling visual art practice now MULTITALENTED It was the year Devo signed a major on view at the Contemporary Austin’s contract to Warner Bros. Records, Jones Center gallery. ushered in by none other than David A certain generation knows Bowie. Wearing their signature bright yel- Exhibit continued on D6 MOTHERSBAUGH low hazmat suits and with their jerky, robotic movements, the band played ALSO INSIDE at Austin’s legendary Armadillo » Info about ‘Mark Mothersbaugh: My- Devo frontman brings entertaining art to Austin. World Headquarters. opia’, D6

MUSIC Composer’s work is inspired by mythology of Enchanted Rock

By Luke Quinton year!” he said. Special to the American- Sherburn’s imagination IF YOU GO Statesman had a lot of time to envision What: Justin Sherburn and the monolith near Fredericks- the Montopolis Chamber Austin rock musician and burg. Ensemble:“Monolith: Music alt-classical composer Justin “I’d think about it. I kind for Enchanted Rock” Sherburn was, you might say, of just constructed pic- When: 7 p.m. Sunday enchanted by Enchanted Rock tures of it in my mind,” Sher- Where: North Door, 502 very early on. There’s just one burn said. What did the pic- Brushy St. thing — despite living in Aus- tures resemble? “In my mind Tickets: $15 tin since 1998, the Fort Worth it was the Rocky Mountains,” Information: native hadn’t actually seen it he laughed. “So when I went montopolismusic.com in person. Leon Alesi’s photos, including“Enchanted Rock,” will be projected on a “I didn’t go out there till this Sherburn continued on D8 screen as a part of the performance. CONTRIBUTED Theweather’s warming UP, so we’remarking DOWN! Page 6 CMYK

D6 AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016 Exhibit IF YOU GO continued from D1 What: ’Mark Mothersbaugh: Myopia’ Mothersbaugh, 65, from When: 11 a.m. to 7 his Devo days of the p.m.Tuesday-Saturday, 1970s and 1980s. The noon to 5 p.m. Sunday band, with its counter- through April 17 culture, darkly humor- Where: Contemporary ous message of de-evolu- Austin,Jones Center, tion (i.e. the breakdown 700 Congress Ave. of civilization), catapult- Tickets: $3-$5 (free on ed to pop culture heights Tuesdays) thanks to chart-busting Information: hits like “Whip It.” 512-453-5312, A younger demograph- thecontemporary ic recognizes Mothers- austin.org baugh for the myriad For a video of Mark soundtracks he’s com- Mothersbaugh, see posed, including for the austin360.com/arts. “Rugrats” TV series, “The Lego Movie,” “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and Wes red, Mothersbaugh’s Anderson’s “The Royal many postcards are Tenenbaums.” offered as a road map of But few know of the an incessantly engaged prolific visual output of imagination. the creative polymath — Mark Mothersbaugh’s“Mutatum”is a sculpture made of a fused, double-ended Scion parked on a patch of fake grass on The habit of making his tinkering with dated the first floor of the Contemporary’s Jones Center. Next to“Mutatum”are some of Mothersbaugh’s ‘Roli Poli’ figures. hand-held drawings was technologies, his manip- JAY JANNER PHOTOS / AMERICAN-STATESMAN born of convenience, ulated vintage photo- too. It was inexpensive graphs and his daily habit way to create small works of drawing postcard-size “They didn’t under- that were easy to share images that now number stand what we were and trade as part of the more than 30,000. about,” said Mothers- mail art movement of the Most formative were baugh of the music indus- 1970s. his years as an art stu- try executives who Also, it was an effi- dent at Kent State during brushed aside Devo’s cient means of making art the Vietnam War. Moth- experimental origins. when Mothersbaugh was ersbaugh was a sopho- “We thought we were on the road with Devo. more when, in 1970, Ohio an art movement. We Moreover, with his National Guardsmen shot didn’t want to be present- vision impairments, hold- and killed four Kent State ed as just a rock band. But ing a small piece of paper student protesters. It was that’s what happened, tucked closely by proves an event that had a pro- and we ended up going the least distracting draw- found impact not just on along with it for a while.” ing method for Mothers- Mothersbaugh’s nihilistic And they did, after all, baugh. yet irreverent outlook on become rock stars. “Even with glasses, I American culture but also The exhibit’s title refers still see everything like it’s on Devo’s own philoso- to Mothersbaugh’s severe reflected in a doorknob,” phy of “de-evolution,” The exhibit, perfectly timed to land in Austin for SXSW, includes some of his prints. vision defect, myopia Mothersbaugh said, the idea that the world that wasn’t properly diag- standing amid the display was falling apart and that nosed until he was 7. of postcards at the Jones human-made develop- ful Mutants” series. A eo animations, all repre- Minneapolis and Cincin- “I never saw birds fly- Center. “It’s much easier ments benefited no one. cluster of “Roli Polis” — sentative of his mashup of nati and, after its stop in ing or the tops of trees or if I just do this.” Now, perfectly — and creepy-funny cartoonish high and low culture. Austin, will continue to clouds,” he said. “I nev- From his pocket he deliberately — timed to character sculptures with Mothersbaugh’s under- New York and California. er even saw the sun prop- pulled out a piece of card- land in Austin during large hands and a single the-radar profile as a visu- An accompanying cata- erly. After I got glasses I board and an ink brush South by Southwest, tuft of hair — gather near- al artist prompted Adam log with scholarly essays just immediately started pen. And with a few deft “Myopia” emerges as an by. Lerner, director of Den- solidifies Mothersbaugh’s drawing pictures.” strokes, he drew a hand enormously entertaining From upstairs comes ver’s Museum of Contem- arrival on the museum And Mothersbaugh gesturing to reach. exhibit that fills in Moth- the cacophonous, cir- porary Art, to organize scene. hasn’t stopped. “I made all these pri- ersbaugh’s creative back cus-like sounds of Moth- “Myopia.” Lerner frames Mothers- Indeed, the heart and vately,” said Mothers- story. ersbaugh’s “Orchestri- “He’s someone who baugh’s visual art as part soul of this sometimes baugh of his postcards. Just inside the Jones ons” — music machines deserves to be known of a trajectory that begins frolicsome body of work “They’re like a dia- Center’s Congress Ave- made from outdated vin- by the art world,” Lern- with an underground are the dozens identical ry,” he said. “For years, nue-level picture win- tage church organ pipes er said. “His music is only comic book aesthetic of red archival notebooks I never intended them to dow is “Mutatum” — a and antique bird whis- part of his creative out- the 1960s, spans multiple filled with thousands be shared with anyone. I two-ended Toyota Sci- tles. And there are more put, and even then Devo avant-garde experiments of postcard-size imag- hope people aren’t disap- on parked on a patch of “Roli Polis” and “Beauti- is misunderstood by of the 1970s and final- es. Displayed auspicious- pointed.” AstroTurf, one of Moth- ful Mutants” along with many.” ly dovetails with today’s ly on low platforms under ersbaugh’s 3-D realiza- Mothersbaugh’s prints, After its 2014 premiere, street-art vibe and indie hanging pendant lights in Contact Jeanne Claire van tions from his “Beauti- paintings, rugs and vid- the show has toured to graphic art movement. a gallery painted a deep Ryzin at 512-445-3699.