Photography: “The De-Evolution Is Real:” The Restored Films of DEVO with Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh 1/27/24

Photography: “The De-Evolution Is Real:” The Restored Films of DEVO with Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh 1/27/24

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the influential New Wave outfit DEVO, and the occasion inspired a deep restoration and remastering project of the band’s extensive film, video and audio archives.

A couple of weeks ago, DEVO founders Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh and restoration head Peter Conheim presented a collection of the band’s restored short films and videos at MoMA. I found out about the event through a friend and colleague, who told me about the event when I ran into her about a week before. When she told me about it, my face lit up and I said to her excitedly: “You don’t know how much my mom and I loved DEVO,” which I followed up by yelling: “Are we not men? We are DEVO!”

On MoMA’s site, restoration head Peter Conheim wrote:

“Formed at Kent State University in the grim wake of the 1970 National Guard student massacre, DEVO emerged from its spud cocoon as a hydra-headed music, art, and film collective whose rare early musical provocations would give way to perhaps the most subversive, whip (it)-smart pop group of the 20th century (with gold records to its credit). Filmmaking and music were intertwined from the beginning, resulting in the canonical short films In the Beginning Was the End: The Truth About De-Evolution (1976), Satisfaction (1978), The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize (1979) and the infamous Whip Tease (aka Whip It) (1980), among others, in collaboration with co-director Chuck Statler. This program features new restorations and reconstructions of these titles, along with restored versions of the video-based works that followed, including Girl U Want (1980), Beautiful World (1981) and Peek-A-Boo (1982). Also shown is a brand-new 4K digital restoration of Bruce Conner’s Mongoloid (1977), never-before-seen 16mm film footage from their breakthrough appearance at NYC’s Max’s Kansas City in 1977, the saga of long-suffering record label boss Rod Rooter, and some exciting restoration work in progress.”

The night also featured a short talk with Conheim, Casale and Mothersbaugh about the restoration of the DEVO archives and a brief Q&A. I brought my Canon R6 to the event — and got some photos.