On October 11th, 2023, Muse gave away all the works exhibited in Extra Medium | John Muse—and many, many unframed works too, a total of 110. See an article on the event in the fall 2023 Haverford Magazine.
Pictures from the Event by Holden Blanco:
Here’s the Run of show for the Everything Must Go, which Muse read out almost verbatim:
Welcome to Everything Must Go / 100% Off… the last event of Extra Medium.
Thank you to everyone for coming. I’m John Muse. I teach here at the college and am so lucky to have had this exhibition and residency opportunity. Thanks to curator Homay King for continuous support and great friendship. Thanks to Matthew Callinan for making this all happen; thanks to the gallery staff for their dedication and enthusiastic support: Ela, Riley, Teri, Tasnim, Alice, Maia, Olivia, Anna Sophia, and Sydney.
Ok, so here’s what’s going to happen:
- I’ll talk for a few minutes about this form aka raffle ticket.
- Then I will hand it out and give you a few minutes to complete it.
- Then Homay King will take the first turn.
- After that, using a random number generator I will select holders of this form to come forward one at a time. You will introduce yourself, read something from the form, take something from the wall, and very briefly speak about your affection for it—a single sentence please!
- Then you will take it around to the studio and where you will be photographed with it and it will be wrapped up for safety’s sake. The photograph of you will be pinned to the wall in place of the work.
- Homay will do this too!
- And we’ll carry on this way until EVERYONE or Every HOUSEHOLD has something and until this side of the gallery is filled with tiny photographs. And if we finish with the framed work we’ll go into the deep catalog.
I’m going to hand out this form, a soft obligation, call it perhaps a contract, but only in the etymological sense: a drawing together. By this slim sheet of paper, we are to be drawn together, all of us.
There’s a unique number; there’s a place for your name and email address; there’s a place for you to describe a task, and signature lines, for you and for me, that we may be drawn together.
What Task?
The tasks: I’ll read this part:
In the field below describe a task of your own design that you promise to complete. The task can be simple, complex, challenging, comforting, and/or nearly impossible; the task could take a moment or last a lifetime. It can be practical and involve everyday objects and actions or be a work of the imagination. The task should not seek to compensate the artist; it is for you and yours and ours, not mine. Subsequent modifications are permitted: what you write below might just be the start of something. Before you receive your work, I will ask you to share your task with those assembled.What do I have in mind? I’m thinking of mid-century artistic geniuses like Yoko Ono, George Maciunas, Alison Knowles, and George Patterson who invented, on the model of musical composition, what they called event scores or action prompts. Here’s one of Ono’s from 1960: “Carry a bag of peas. Leave a pea wherever you go.”
You will design this—or begin to, a score for yourself. Some pressure but no pressure, if you know what I mean. The Tasks/Scores/Prompts should be specific and clear: not so much “I will save the world” or “I will be kinder tomorrow than I was today,” as the following:
- I will recite my favorite poem to a bird. If the bird flies off before I finish, I will try again with another bird.
- I will randomly plot the shape of 1 mile radius circle on a map of my town and visit each of the places where the circle intersects a road or path.
- I will knit a cozy for my neighbor’s lawnmower, the one I borrow all the time.
- I will plant a tree and water it with the tears of my friends.
- I will count all the leaves on all the trees in the park across from my house.
These are just examples! Please do not offer to make me a meal or an artwork or a nest or a blanket. Do something for yourself; something that will help you discover what it is you want and need. Though I could try to supply you with tears if we’re friends.
Staying in touch:
You’ll also see that I’m asking you to be in touch with me, to send me photographs and stories. We will begin that today. You will all leave with something and you will all be photographed with the thing you’re leaving with. As each framed piece disappears it will be replaced by a small polaroid portrait of you with it. Beyond that, I’m asking you to send me documentation of your task—a story, a picture—if possible, and to photograph the artwork in your living space in the context of other things you’re caring for, other pictures other things on your walls.
Who?
Finally, I encourage you all to reflect on the following: if you’ve come here with someone you live with, whatever that means, think of whether you should leave with one thing or two. I truly hope that y’all could love and care for something in common. Thus do I say on the form: “One per family—broadly construed—or shared living space.” Just think about this and make a choice. I will make no inquiries.
Let’s begin! I can answer questions after I’ve handed out the forms.
The form:
Approximately 110 artworks were given away. Each person stood to read their promise out to those gathered. Each selected an artwork—the first 35 selected framed works; the rest selected works from works that had been considered for the show. Each was photographed with their artwork. Each person turned in the form, which were aggregated:
Here are a few polaroids taken by Patrick Montero of those who left with framed work:
