FROM KOLAJ #20
World Imitation & Monitor: How Collage Visualized Early California Punk
World Imitation Productions (WImP) emerged as creators of collaged and photocopied mail art and publications in the late 1970s. Going on to curate pioneering exhibitions of found paintings culled from thrift stores, lost pet flyers, and other abject visual artwork, they are best known in their musical incarnation, the band Monitor, active between 1977 and 1982. In Kolaj #20, Antonio Beecroft & Michael Uhlenkott recall the history of the group and how the used collage to visualize the early California Punk scene.
This article appears in KOLAJ #20. To read the entire article, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Get a Copy of the Issue.
We were art students, so we knew about Dada, but our focus was on antiquity, the Renaissance, Victoriana. We loved the advertising art of the nineteen-fifties and sixties that focused on the middle-class. We also loved the art of science books and magazines of the same era, which was hilarious without trying to be, and often very creepy. We gathered old magazines and science texts from library rejects, trash cans, and thrift stores. We loved trash.
This article appears in KOLAJ #20. To read the entire article, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Get a Copy of the Issue.
“Afraid of Modern Living: World Imitation/Monitor 1977-1982” was exhibited at These Days in Los Angeles, 4 March-7 May 2017. Curator Antonio Beecroft is the data standards editor in the Vocabulary Program at the Getty Research Institute. He wrote the authorized history of World Imitation and Monitor, End of the World, in 2013. Artist, musician and surfer Michael Uhlenkott was a founding member of the World Imitation art collective and of the punk band Monitor. Learn more about the exhibition at www.thesedaysla.com.
Image (top):
Die Pruefung by Michael Uhlenkott
Image (bottom):
Surprise by Michael Uhlenkott