VISUAL ARTS
The artists playing hide and seek
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IN THE 1960S, THE MOST FAMOUS EXPORT OUT OF Akron, Ohio, was the car tyre. Known as the “rubber capital of the world”, the city’s towering smokestacks would pump out the stench of burning rubber, which made the streets smell like rotten eggs.
“It was a depressing landscape,” recalls Gerald Casale. “But that’s often where innovative creativity is born. If you’re a creative person in this oppressive environment with no future you either give up or you rise up.”
Casale chose the latter. His band Devo have now arguably overtaken rubber as Akron’s most famous export. Fifty years on from their formation, they are in the middle of a triumphant farewell tour that just saw them headline at the Green Man festival, in the stunning rolling Welsh countryside – a stark contrast to the rust-belt landscape from which they came.
Speaking over Zoom in front of a custom backdrop featuring a map of the world
