BEI INCUBI BY NICK RHODES
TEXT Mr. V
DURAN DURAN'S NICK RHODES PRESENTS HIS "BEAUTIFUL NIGHTMARES"—PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHS ON DISPLAY AT THE VINYL FACTORY CHELSEA IN LONDON
BEI INCUBI, which translates into "Beautiful Nightmares" opens today at the Vinyl Factory Chelsea in London. The show features 20 polaroids and more than 30 original photographs and prints by Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes, an accompaniment to his new concept album Bored With Prozac and the Internet? by his project TV Mania with former Duran member Warren Cuccurullo.
Got all that? The record, a conceptual soundtrack meant to evoke the ennui of today's digital age, is built on a premonition of society that Rhodes and Cuccurullo had back in the nineties, in which voyeurism would be woven into the cultural fabric. Fast forward post-Facebook, and we're all living in an endless real time clusterfuck of each other's personal private moments. Is it even possible to send an email and assume the recipient hasn't received it? Publicists are taking advantage of this assumption in increasingly hostile ways. It's enough to drive an editor mad.
Though it was intended to become a Broadway musical, TV Mania: Bored with Prozac and the Internet? is instead being released on March 11th with limited-edition boxed sets. Though the music was recorded more than a decade ago, Rhodes describes their relevance now more than ever: "When I found the master recordings, I thought, Wow, this sounds unbelievably contemporary," he says. "When we put them up on the system, it was not only a great surprise given what we had thought their fate was, but it was also literally like finding a painting and ablowing the dust off of it. Times have certainly changed since we made the record, but the subject matter that inspired this album happens to be at the forefront of today's world, so the songs have weathered the test of time in a strangely beautiful way."
For more information on the record, go to tvmaniamusic.com. For a preview of Rhodes's photographs, click above.
BEI INCUBI exhibits at The Vinyl Factory Chelsea, 91 Walton Street, from today through April 5th.
Courtesy V Magazine
