“In all of the Temporary Structure projects, Finley+Muse treat commemoration as a non-linear path that leads inexorably to the thresh-olds of the vital present.” —Maiza Hixson
Temporary Structure, an exhibition mounted at the Patricia Sweetow Gallery, consists of three works by Finley+Muse that document and archive the construction of memorial sites. The title comes from the definition of “falsework,” an architectural term defined as “temporary structures used in construction to support, protect, or shore up other architectural components of the construction zone.” Finley+Muse explore falseworks beyond the definition of physical support, considering the stories, images, and sounds that evoke site, the gesture of memorial construction, and those memorialized at the sites.
Imperfect City / Imperfect State is a media installation and web-based, social practice project commissioned by The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, that documents and archives over 70 vernacular roadside memorials in northern Delaware. These memorials are illegal in Delaware but nonetheless ubiquitous. A single-channel video work pairs the audio landscape of each memorial (sounds of the highway, bird calls, wind, rain, and a distant gunshot) with its photographic image. QR-codes link visitors to the web-based archive.
Fat Chance: two fathers and three boys were hit by a rogue wave in their boat, Fat Chance and one of the boys was killed. This essay film interweaves facts about rogue waves, views of the sailboat being salvaged and towed back out to sea, the story of the accident, and one of the father?s reactions to the documentary footage of the salvage operation. Directed, written, shot, and edited by Jeanne C. Finley, in collaboration with Mel Day.
Falsework explores the visual disparity between the San Francisco Presidio Pet Cemetery’s small, fragile graves and the massive falsework structure that protects them to examine the dynamic relationship between humans, pets, and the site. The gallery exhibition includes documentation of the falsework construction and drawings by the meet-up group, SF Sketchers, organized by Laurie Wigham.
A full-color catalog designed by Laurie Wigham and with an essay by Maiza Hixson can be downloaded here.