I love GWAR. That’s a known fact. I don’t give a shit that they are loud, obnoxious, vulgar, juvenile, disgusting, slimy, rude, insolent, offensive, politically incorrect and poor role models. In fact, that’s exactly why I like them. Over nearly 30 years, Oderus and his rag-tag team of Scumdogs has infested the record stores of the world with their albums full of ridiculous tirades and epic journeys, and for nearly thirty years they’ve been leaving behind a trail of phallic art and grotesque props. Apparently their adopted hometown of Richmond (their Earth hometown is Antarctica, durr.) loves them, enough to curate an art show dedicated to the doodles, fake(?) body parts and images of blood-soaked concert-goers that embodies GWAR.
Curator Benjamin Thorpe says that he is “super excited about it.” DURR.
I won’t even make it out there and I’m super excited about it. Thorpe explained that “Black Iris is really interested in being agents of cultural change. It’s important to showcase the value of a group like GWAR beyond their genre. There’s more to GWAR than the music or the show that they’re putting on, a lot goes in to that. The energy that goes in to that is what makes them so influential.” I think he’s just trying to buy some time by sucking up to GWAR, but he’s gonna die, just like the rest of us.
GWAR and their Slave Pit Studios are Richmond staples, so it’s no surprise that Richmonders (Richmondians? I don’t fucking know) are dedicating an entire exhibit, complete with a talk from Sarah Cunningham, former Director of Arts Education at the National Endowment for the Arts, entitled ““The Metaphysics of the Creative City”” on September 19th. In her talk, Cunningham will discuss how art fits into the city of the future. Which is a useless talk since I’m sure GWAR’s 30th anniversary of their dethawing will result in the wonton destruction of countless millions resulting in a blood-splattered apocalypse in which there are no cities.
“Let There be GWAR” is apparently not only the name of the art exhibit at The Gallery at Black Iris Music” AND a re-release of a bunch of shittily-recorded pre-Hell-O demos, but of a feature-length documentary chronicling the epic rise of the scumdogs known as GWAR. AWESOME. The show opens September 6th and runs through September 26th, 2013. From sketchbooks to molds of their junk to arrest reports, the journey of GWAR will be well represented at the show through more than 400 pieces. There were probably only 25 pieces until Oderus threw a conniption fit over only getting one packet of mustard with his corn dog and smashed everything to hell.
-Jonathan Yost