Museum Monday: Reconfirming Magic

MUSEUM MONDAY:

Reflections in Ephemera from Martin

The more the museum comes into focus, the more it seems it needs to be organized. Welcome to my world. Some things are obvious: there seems to be 3 or 4 KMFDM related areas all the way in the back, on top of the bathroom, in the bathroom and ½ way down the stairs. Ditto for Chris Connelly, and a Pigface-specific area still needs to be established.

I just realized last week that the shroud from the Skinny Puppy ‘Ain’t it Dead Yet’ video release sits across the foyer from the cutlery that Ogre (theatrically) stabbed himself with. Obviously, those two things need to be combined. It’s easy to see things in the same room that need to be closer together, two objects separated by just 40 feet in different areas of the museum surprised me last week with their connection…

I call one of the areas “PiL Corner.” Some artifacts from Old Grey Whistle Test, American Bandstand, a cup from the BBC John Peel sessions, my Mickey Mouse watch from the Flowers of Romance album, and the first record I played on in 1979 – The Metal Box. Some tour attendees linger there with questions, some pass it by more quickly on their way to the deep NiN area.

Further upfront is my old Invisible Records office – now the museum gift shop with shirts, vinyl, tote bags, catalogs, art prints and sandpaper bags of our Dark Matter Coffee (an homage to the 1980 Factory Records release of Durutti Columns’ ‘Return Of The Durutti Column’ Legend has it that members of Joy Division helped glue the sandpaper sleeve at the labels Manchester offices). I’d dug a little deeper and found perhaps Durutti Columns’ inspiration from the French situationist Guy DeBords’ 1959 book Mémoires – itself in a sandpaper sleeve.

I LOVE that the museum throws me into this state of being, into the sandpit of creative exploration and connections. But I was surprised last week with what came next. I was reading through some Red Bull material on the DC release and saw that Factory Records founder Tony Wilson had originally intended the release to be in a Metal Box but had to re-imagine it when we (PiL) released the Metal Box! Jamie Reid came to the rescue with the idea for the sandpaper.

I’m always trying to conduct things in the spirit of post punk & industrial music – that’s why I insist that people TOUCH the sandpaper sleeve (even though greasy fingers will ultimately destroy the exhibit).

If you’ve been to the museum, you’ve seen me talk about some of the unexpected connections between PiL and Wax Trax, Killing Joke, Revco, Thrill Kill Kult and The Smashing Pumpkins……I guess that’s what a museum is? An increase of the depth of knowledge and, what a great time to be talking about the unexpected things that connect us. I try and push the envelope online too – our 30/60/90% choose your discount feels like a super punkAF experiment, too!

Come visit! discover more connections! there’s lots of (mis)guided tours and listening sessions with me all the way into January (now 50% off-see below!)