Yes, that Mark Mothersbaugh — the lead singer of Devo. Beautiful Mutants is the show catalog for the 2007 exhibition of the same name at CSUF Grand Central Art Center Project Room in Santa Ana, CA. It has lots of old timey photos of interesting people (Carmen Miranda, the Del Rubio Triplets, various circus-y freak people, just to name a couple, even a few pugs! I’ve seen the artist with his pugs. Awesome!) halved and then resewn to show the same half as the opposite side. What do I mean? OK, so let’s say you took a picture of me. Oh, and let’s say I’m a sad-eyed perfumier in Brecksville, Ohio in like, the forties. In one hand I’m holding some flowers. And in the other hand I’m holding lace. So then you take the side where I’m just holding the flowers and make a replica of that side, except that you reverse it. Now both sides are facing each other, totally symmetrical. You cut away the side with the lace, and you attach the side with the reversed image of me holding the flowers. And voila! I look like a very mutilated version of myself. And my sad eyes are way too close together. Or way too far apart so I look freaky like Jackie O. Does this make any sense? Some of the photos in the book the eyes are so close together that it makes one eye, so it’s like a cycloptic magician or something. Crazy!
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