JOVIAL TALES FOR TRAGIC SENSIBILITIES

A Retrospective of the Work of Jeanne C. Finley and John Muse

First retrospective exhibition of Bay Area media artists celebrates 14 years of experimental single-channel and installation work...

September 17 - October 18, 2003

Opening Reception, Thursday September 18, 6-8 pm

Recognized nationally and internationally for their contributions to the field of video art, Jeanne C. Finley and John Muse's collaboration is celebrated in JOVIAL TALES FOR TRAGIC SENSIBILITIES. Organized by New Langton Arts and presented with the Exploratorium, Film Arts Foundation, and SF Cinematheque, JOVIAL TALES for Tragic Sensibilities is the first comprehensive retrospective of the single-channel and installation work of the two Bay Area artists. In three installations -- THE ADVENTURES OF BLACKY (1998) and the two-part TRIAL OF HARMONY AND INVENTION: WINTER (2001) and THE TRIAL OF HARMONY AND INVENTION: SPRING (2003)

-- Finley and Muse demonstrate a dexterous manipulation of visual and linguistic metaphors, collapsing the boundaries between documentary and narrative video.

Originating at New Langton Arts, JOVIAL TALES surveys a collaboration that began in 1989. The exhibition encompasses the installation and single-channel work created during that fourteen-year period. In addition to remountings of BLACKY and WINTER, Finley and Muse premiere a video work commissioned by Langton titled THE TRIAL OF HARMONY AND INVENTION: SPRING. The exhibition also includes a viewing station with several single-channel videos available for individual screenings. JOVIAL TALES is accompanied by off-site events including a screening of Finley's early slide / video works organized by San Francisco Cinematheque, a discussion with the artists, filmmaker Craig Baldwin, and cultural critic Margaret Morse at Film Arts Foundation, and a remounting of Finley and Muse's A WING AND A PRAYER (2002) at San Francisco's Exploratorium, featuring a vocal performance by Pamela Z. Published by New Langton Arts and designed by Morla Design, a 96-page catalog with color photography, a chronology, and essays by Mark Alice Durant and Margaret Morse, completes the retrospective.

In the gallery at Langton, the retrospective includes WINTER (2002) and the world premiere of SPRING (2003). These two pieces complete the first half of Finley and Muse's ongoing video installation THE TRIAL OF HARMONY AND INVENTION, which uses all four components of Antonio Vivaldi's FOUR SEASONS as its primary source material.

WINTER overlays twenty-four recordings of the ubiquitous concerto, creating a lush, entirely new musical score that is both dissonant and eerily unmoored from rigorous tempo. Images of flight and submersion are projected onto the floor and a mirrored disco ball, which refracts the visuals and causes them to multiply and glide over the walls and ceiling. SPRING is a three-channel video installation that creates an enclosed space constructed with two-way mirrors and a rear-projection screen. Reflected imagery teases with notions of unrequited desire as a newly compiled version of Vivaldi's composition pulses in the air.

Also in the gallery is THE ADVENTURES OF BLACKY (1998), an installation based on a psychological test designed to detect neuroses and other disturbances in children. Exploring the darker subtext of childhood, this work combines computer-controlled video projection, sampled sound and narration, sculptural objects, and slide projection to evoke a tension between authority, control, and resistance.

Collaborative single-channel works by Finley and Muse to be shown at Langton during the opening reception include INVOLUNTARY CONVERSION (1991), LANGUAGE LESSONS (2002), TIME BOMB (1995) and LOSS PREVENTION (2000).

Works available for viewing in the gallery throughout the exhibition include AT THE MUSEUM: A PILGRIMAGE OF VANQUISHED OBJECTS (1989, 23 min); NOMADS AT THE 25 DOOR (1991, 43 min); A.R.M. AROUND MOSCOW (1993, 57 min); CONVERSATIONS ACROSS THE BOSPHOROUS (1995, 42 min); BASED ON A STORY (1997, 43 min); O NIGHT WITHOUT OBJECTS (1998, 60 min); and ACCIDENTAL CONFESSIONS (1987, 5 min).

JOVIAL TALES receives special funding from the Creative Capital Foundation, the Cultural Equity Grants of the San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the board of directors and members of New Langton Arts. The catalog is published by New Langton Arts and received special funding and production assistance from the Creative Capital Foundation, the Exploratorium, Film Arts Foundation, Morla Design, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco Cinematheque, and Sven Wiederholt.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jeanne C. Finley and John Muse have worked collaboratively on numerous experimental documentaries and video installations. Their video works have been exhibited internationally at festivals and galleries including the San Francisco International Film Festival (2001), the Berlin Video Festival (1992), the Toronto Film Festival (1996), and the World Wide Video Festival (The Netherlands, 1992). Recipients of a Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship (2002) and a Creative Capital Foundation Grant (2001), Finely and Muse were also Artists in Residence at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (1995-96).

Jeanne C. Finley is a Guggenheim Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and Alpert/Cal Arts Award winner. She is a Professor of Media Studies at the California College of Arts and Crafts.

John Muse is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Rhetoric at U.C. Berkeley and was recently appointed Graduate Fellow at Berkeley's Townsend Center for the Humanities for the academic year 2003/04.