The official Pink Floyd exhibition, dubbed “The Mortal Remains” will make its North American debut later this year in Southern California. Back in 2017, co-founders Roger Waters and Nick Mason were on hand in London to kick off the career-spanning exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The multimedia exhibit will run at L.A.'s Vogue Multicultural Museum from August 3rd through November 28th.
“Their Mortal Remains” was curated by the band's longtime creative director and Hipgnosis designer Aubrey “Po” Powell, “and developed closely” with Nick Mason. Rolling Stone reported “The audiovisual exhibition features over 350 items from Pink Floyd’s history — many 'dusted off' from storage units and the band members' personal collections — including handwritten lyrics, musical instruments, letters, original artwork, and stage props.”
Aubrey “Po” Powell and his late partner Storm Thorgerson, conceived and created legendary and timeless album and singles covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney & Wings, Yes, the Scorpions, AC/DC, Peter Frampton, Black Sabbath, Styx, 10cc, and countless others.
Powell explained that the company's work, spearheaded by himself and Storm Thorgerson, played on each other's strengths: “Well, Hipgnosis worked as an art house. Storm and I were the main designers for that company — but we employed other people to cop me and work with us. And so, when we wanted something done, it had to be done in our way; exactly right, but we couldn’t do everything. I mean, I’m not an illustrator, I’m not a guy who does graphics; I’m a guy who looks through a camera and knows about composition, and with Storm, knew what a great idea was. So, we had to share the load. So we began to creative our own style.”
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason told us that there is a definite musical thread to be found in all of Floyd's work from “Arnold Layne” through their final work: “I think what it shows is that there's a sort of style that was unwittingly established at the beginning and has sort of stayed with us. I think that's true of other bands as well. If you took something like U2, I think they have a very distinctive sound, even though the songs are different. I don't think it's a deliberate process — in fact, everyone's desperately trying to change, I think, and develop and move on, but you somehow just get set in with patterns that you feel comfortable with and that feel right. I think most bands have to operate on what feels right to them, rather than trying to second guess what people might like.”
