Step into the GWAR-verse
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Part art collective, part shock-rock band GWAR exhibits a 40-year-long retrospective at Beyond the Streets gallery in LA.
Going to a GWAR concert is like watching a Dungeons & Dragons campaign go completely berserk: intergalactic beasts decapitating pop stars and politicians, spewing Tarantino amounts of blood onto the audience, all while managing to perform heavy metal theatrics in elaborate head-to-toe, homemade costumes.
What began as mere art school antics in a humble old dairy building in Richmond, VA, evolved into decades of full-blown, blood-soaked absurdist sci-fi mythology with a cult following. After an extensive 40-year legacy, they’ve assembled their sprawling archive of ephemera at Beyond the Streets gallery in LA, where you can now step into the GWAR universe in its totality until November 2. LET THERE BE GWAR exhibits the band’s handcrafted costumes, instruments, weaponry, stage props, video installations, monumental set pieces, and spew tanks. Plus, the only monster-sized toilet in the galaxy.
They came to destroy … and ended up creating something eternal.
“I’ve been saving all our history since I’ve been in the band,” says Bob Gorman, GWAR’s archivist, band member, and integral craftsman. “This is just 40 years of costume artistry. The punk side of us is that we don’t let the fact we don’t know what we’re doing stop us.” It must take a lot of storage units.
GWAR is so much more than a satirical caricature and badass reclamation of all that is ’80s nerd-dom. As an art collective, they challenge our worship of icons and aesthetic standards, proving that there is just as much craft in purportedly lowbrow art. GWAR obliterates any expectations one might have about a live concert by turning it into rollicking multimedia performance art that doesn’t flinch on virtuosity
“This isn’t just a music exhibition,” says curator Roger Gastman. “GWAR represents one of the most successful long-term art collectives in American culture, and their influence on both underground and mainstream entertainment is undeniable. They came to destroy… and ended up creating something eternal.”
GWAR proves you don’t have to be boring to be successful. As titans of subculture and trailblazers of the DIY movement, they still found their way to two Grammy nominations, appearances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, TEDx, and Beavis and Butt-Head—a testament to their unyielding creative force.
For the full GWAR interview, stay tuned for Issue 2 of Art Bar, and be sure to swing by Beyond the Streets before November 2 for free admission to LET THERE BE GWAR.
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