Arts Want A Show at MoMA?
The Residents have been making music and multimedia art since the 1970s, always appearing in disguise—usually tuxes, top hats, and big eyeball masks—and never granting interviews.
Now, they want a collaborator, and they’ll take anybody. They’re doing an “online community art project” exploring the rise of instant-video creation and YouTube by putting out an open call for video to go with a 1:30 audio clip from Episode 1 of their podcast series, River of Crime.
The audio is based on the story of Toni Jo Henry, the only woman executed by electric chair in Louisiana, who on Valentine’s Day 1940, made a man strip to his waist and shot him in the head on her way to rescue her husband from jail.
Submissions are due Sept 15. The Residents and MoMA curator Barbara London will judge them, and then on Oct. 1, 30 shortlist videos will be posted on YouTube. London and the Residents will choose the final videos for screening at MoMA on Oct. 19, taking YouTube popularity into consideration in the judging process. On Oct. 20, the selections will be posted on www.moma.org/residents.
Here’s all the info, and the clip.
I cast my vote for the Residents as the best rock band ever. Most creative, most original, most twisted, and most consistently interesting. It's almost worth a trip to New York in October just to see their 3-day retrospective at the MoMA.