It seems like there are a number of rock icons these days who, if they haven’t burned out, haven’t really faded away, either. Take Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh. For one thing, the most influential of new wave bands never actually broke up; Devo toured again just this year. And Mothersbaugh is constantly working on new music, for film soundtracks (The Rugrats Movie, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou), videos, and for his own amusement. When we talked with him, he was working on some music he didn’t expect anyone else would ever hear, and having a great time. But we didn’t call to chat him up about music; we wanted to hear about his upcoming Postcard Diaries show at the Ox-Op Gallery, which comprises diminutive artworks that he has produced daily for more than thirty years. We also imagine they’d pack quite nicely into a shirt pocket, should ever Mothersbaugh find himself en route to a desert isle. Here’s what else he’d tote along:
1. Blank paper, cardstock, 3 1/2″ x 5 1/4″ watercolor paper, and Japanese sumi fountain pens made by Pilot. I would definitely spend a lot of time on my art. It’s a response to everything that goes on around me. Although I’d be on that island, so things might be kind of quiet. One of my favorite art shows was by [Hawaii Five-O star] Jack Lord. Devo was playing in Hawaii and I walked into a hotel lobby that had three hundred of his paintings, and every single one of them was the exact same sunset and three palm trees. Each one was a little different, but they were the same landscape.
2. An iPod loaded with every Steve Reich album. I’d like to bring something that I didn’t write, and something that is three dimensional and allows me to walk in and out of my head.
3. Every Dick Tracy comic ever written. Chester Gould is the unparalleled master of black and white in Western art.
4. A collection of spare eyeglasses. The first time I went to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, when I was a little kid, I ran out into the water and lost my glasses–both times. I had to read my comic books about three inches from my face for the rest of the trip. Losing my glasses has been a lifelong fear.
5. One red Devo hat. You can use it for so many things: a cooking pot, a mold for bricks, a flotation device, a weapon, a boomerang, a container to protect small animals. In Devo, we used them to trap the orgone energy that normally humans lose out of the top of their heads. We used the hats to radiate it back down. It would trickle down upon us and make us stronger. We took those hats seriously and wore them seriously.
Mark Mothersbaugh’s Postcard Diaries opens at Ox-Op Gallery on December 3. 1111 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-259-0085; www.ox-op.com
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