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