The Residents: The River of Crime,
an online community art project
Submissions requested August 15-September 15
The Residents: Re-Viewed
October 1923
The Museum of Modern Art
11 W. 53 St. (212) 708-9480
You are invited to take part in an online project with The Museum of Modern Art and The Residents. The famously anonymous multimedia visual artists and musicians seek video to go with their audio.
Between August 15 and September 15, visit www.residents.com to download the audio excerpt from The River of Crime episode 1 and read the directions for submitting your clip.
The Residents and MoMA curator Barbara London will judge submissions. On October 1, thirty shortlist videos will be posted on YouTube.com.
London and the Residents will select the final videos for screening at MoMA on October 19. YouTube popularity will be taken into consideration in the judging process. On October 20, the selections will be posted on www.moma.org/residents
The Residents: Re-Viewed
October 1923
This survey features the musical videos and films of The Residents. Originally from Louisiana, they moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s and formed Ralph Records. With wit and rarified electronic inventiveness, The Residents fuse a dark storytelling tradition of the South with an eccentric countercultural spirit of the Bay Area. The exhibition includes material such as Eskimo (1979), the bizarre 2002 Demons Dance Alone show, and footage from their ambitious Vileness Fats film project, which was reluctantly cancelled after four years (197276) of filming.
Throughout their thirty-year history, The Residents have cloaked their lives and music in obscurity. Band members (always four in number) refuse to grant interviews, do not identify themselves by name (or even individual pseudonyms), and never appear without masks (usually giant eyeballs with top hats.) Their management team, The Cryptic Corporation, coordinates their productions and tours.
A representative will introduce the opening program and discuss The River of Crime, their recently released downloadable “Crimecast” series modeled after radio dramas of the 1940s.
The Museum of Modern Art
11 W. 53 St. (212) 708-9480
