The catalog for the 2003 Finley + Muse retrospective exhibition Jovial Tales for Tragic Sensibilities, hosted by New Langton Arts, with thanks to Executive Director at the time, Susan Miller, Program Manager James Bewley, and with the design expertise of Jennifer Morla and Brian Singer of Morla Designs. Essays by Susan Miller, Margaret Morse, and Mark Alice Durant. This exhibition featured the The Adventures of Blacky (1998), the two-part Trial of Harmony and Invention: Winter (2001) and Spring (2003), and numerous screenings and talks.
The catalog:
From the Press Release:
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 18, 6-8 pm
Recognized nationally and internationally for their contributions to the field of video art, Jeanne Finley and John Muse s prolific collaboration is celebrated in Jovial Tales for Tragic Sensibilities. Organized by New Langton Arts and presented with the Exploratorium, Film Arts Foundation , and San Francisco Cinematheque, Jovial Tales is the first comprehensive retrospective of these Bay Area artists single-channel and installation work. In three installations – The Adventures of Blacky (1998) and the two-part Trial of Harmony and Invention: Winter (2001) and 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 is a survey of a collaboration between the two artists that began in 1989. The exhibition encompasses the installation and single channel work created during that fourteen-year period. In addition to Blacky and Winter , Finley and Muse premiere Spring , a video installation based on the elusive nature of desire, commissioned by Langton. At the center of the exhibition is a viewing station with several single-channel videos available for individual screenings. The exhibition is accompanied by off-site events including a screening of Finley s early slide works organized by San Francisco Cinematheque, a discussion with the artists, Craig Baldwin, and 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, a 60-page catalog featuring essays by artist Mark Alice Durant and cultural critic Margaret Morse, completes the retrospective.
Works available for viewing in the gallery during 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 (1994, 57 min);Conversations Across the Bosphorous (1995, 42 min); Based on a Story (1997, 43 min); and O Night Without Objects (1998, 60 min).
Opening-Night Screening Thursday, September 18 at 6:15 and 7:15 pm
Admission is free
Involuntary Conversion (1991, 10 min); Time Bomb (1998, 7 min); Loss Prevention (2000, 17 min); and Language Lessons (2002, 9 min).Gallery Hours
Tuesday – Saturday 12-6 pm
Gallery Admission is freeABOUT THE ARTISTS
Jeanne C. Finley is an artist and filmmaker whose work ranges from experimental to documentary forms. A Fulbright scholar (1989) and Guggenheim fellow (1994), her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Guggenheim Museum (2001), SFMOMA (2002), New York Museum of Modern Art (1998), Finland s Otso Gallery (1998), and the Centre Georges Pompidou (1991). In 2001 she received an Arts-Link fellowship to Sarajevo to create a film and website with Bosnian media artists. Her gallery work is represented by the Patricia Sweetow Gallery in San Francisco and her films are distributed by Video Data Bank, Women Make Movies, and Electronic Arts Intermix. She lives in San Francisco where she teaches media studies at the California College of Arts and Crafts.
John Muse is an artist and writer whose artworks have been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, most recently at Patricia Sweetow Gallery in San Francisco (2002). He and collaborator Jeanne C. Finley have received numerous grants and awards including a Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship for their experimental documentary project Age of Consent (2001) and an Artist in Residence fellowship from the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (1995). Muse earned his MFA in photography from San Francisco Art Institute in 1988 and is now represented by Patricia Sweetow Gallery in San Francisco. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Rhetoric at University of California in Berkeley and resides in Vallejo, California.
Other Jovial Tales
Artist Talk An Evening with Jeanne C. Finley, John Muse, and Margaret Morse
Moderated by Craig Baldwin
Tuesday, October 7, 7 pm
Presented by Film Arts Foundation
Tickets $7/$5 Langton and Film Arts Foundation members
More info: 415 552 8760 or
Film Arts Foundation hosts Finley and Muse with filmmaker Craig Baldwin and critic Margaret Morse in a discussion about the interchange of still and moving images. Brief clips of the artists past works will be screened.
Screening Early Slide and Video Works by Jeanne C. Finley
Thursday, October 9, 7:30 pm
Presented by San Francisco Cinematheque
at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Tickets $7/$4 Langton and Cinematheque members
More info: 415 978 2787 or
This rare screening of early slide works by Finley includes I Saw Jesus in a Tortilla (1982), Deaf Dogs Can Hear (1983), Beyond the Times Foreseen (1984), Against a Single Match, Darkness Flinches (1988), Risks of Individual Actions (1985), and Common Mistakes (1986). The artist will be present to answer questions about her work.
Video Installation and Live Performance A Wing and A Prayer
Thursday, October 16, 7:30 9:30 pm
Presented by the Exploratorium
Included with admission to the Exploratorium
Exploratorium and Langton members free
More info: 415 563 7337 or www.exploratorium.edu
The Exploratorium remounts Finley and Muse s A Wing and A Prayer (2002), a site-specific video installation that projects video onto each of the Exploratorium’s 15-foot angel sculptures, relics of the original Palace of Fine Arts. This one-night event also features a musical performance by Pamela Z. The Exploratorium is a museum of science, art and human perception located in San Francisco’s Marina District.
More information is available at http://www.newlangtonarts.org/