Afraid of Modern Living: World Imitation & Monitor, 1977-198
Label: Sounds On Paper
Format: Book
Genre: Experimental
In stock
Available now is the authorized history of the obscure and influential Los Angeles art and music collective World Imitation Productions (WImP).
Emerging as creators of collaged and photocopied mail art and
publications in the late 1970s, World Imitation is perhaps best known in
its musical incarnation, the band Monitor, which was active
between 1978 and 1982, with live performances as well as two
self-produced 7" singles and one LP. (The LP was reissued by Superior
Viaduct in 2013.) Afraid of Modern Living: World Imitation & Monitor, 1977-1982, authored by WImP scholar Antonio S. Beecroft,
accompanied a successful eponymous exhibition mounted at These Days in
downtown Los Angeles in 2017. The initial edition of 100 pocketbook
catalogs sold out on opening night. This expanded and enlarged edition
draws from an archive of materials that hold up a funhouse mirror to
Southern California culture, consumer dystopia, and the late 1970s punk
movement. Rarely seen handmade publications, paintings, sculpture,
video, and vintage flyers are featured, along with World Imitation
source materials and formative works. The author places World Imitation
firmly in its time and place. Growing up in the paranoia and false
optimism of mid-century suburban Southern California, the collective
explored topics as disparate as exotica, psychedelia, pranks, UFOs, the
paranormal, revolutionary politics, and Disneyland as subjects of
anthropological research. The resulting mélange, as expressed in their
singular sound, images, and various "happenings," was informed by an
oddly engaging aesthetic of random and recycled artifice that resonates
even today, in the future they deconstructed fifty years ago.
Full-color, 158-page softcover book; 6.25" x 10" portrait. Edition of
500. Packed with photos and images of artworks, paintings, sculptures,
installations, and assorted ephemera, including flyers for shows Monitor
performed with the Bags, Human Hands, Germs, Phranc, Johanna Went, 45 Grave, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire, Lydia Lunch, Bpeople, Suicide, and others.
Cat. number: SOP 001BK
Year: 2019