Mythic Chaos: 50 Years of Destroy All Monsters

In 1974, Cary Loren, Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw, and Niagara joined forces to form Destroy All Monsters (DAM), an anti-rock band and artist collective. Named after a Japanese monster movie, the group was formed as an outlet for the young creatives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to explore their rebellious interests in pop culture, film, art, and music at a time when, according to Loren, “a sense of gloom, disaster, and apocalypse, mixed with doses of anarchy, comedy, and absurdity kept us together.” 

Over the past half-century Destroy All Monsters has lived through an array of evolutions spurred on by line-up changes, creative differences, and changes of focus as the core four members have oscillated between this project and solo practices. DAM projects have included noise and rock music, Xerox art, avant-garde films, cutting-edge zines, and exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and Japan.  

Mythic Chaos: 50 Years of Destroy All Monsters traces the group’s lineage from the early 1970s through today, featuring key moments in the collective’s creative arc. This exhibition explores the group’s source inspirations, including formative moments at God’s Oasistheir early practice space and the title of their first Xerox fliers. In addition, Mythic Chaos will feature iconic posters, zines, photographs, collages, films, drawings, and banners selected from the DAM archive from 1974 onward. A new iteration of the collective’s “blob” sculpture, The Crème Filled Palace, will be created at Cranbrook. Mythic Chaos aims to not only illustrate the trajectory of Destroy All Monsters, but to look at its underpinnings and unveil the often fringe cultural mythos that brought the group together in the post-hippie, pre-punk era.