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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 (1972–76) 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.
Organized by Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media.
Program 1
Tim Thoughts, Part 1–15 (2004); Third Reich ‘n Roll (1976); Constantinople (2000); Harry the Head (1991); One-Minute Movies (1980); Kick a Picnic (2000); He Also Serves (2000); This Is a Man’s World (1984); Bad Day (2000); Benny (2004); Teddy (2001); Viva LV (2004); Vileness Fats (1972–76); Eskimo, Part 1 (1979–2002) (The Walrus Hunt; Birth; Arctic Hysteria; The Angry Angakok). Program 99 min. Premiere.
Thursday, October 19, 6:00 (introduced by a representative of The Residents); Saturday, October 21, 2:00. T1
Program 2
Tim Thoughts, Part 16–30 (2004); Gingerbread Man (2000); Jelly Jack (1993); One-Minute Movies (2005); Stars and Stripes (1997); Burn Baby (2000); Hello Skinny (1980); Eskimo, Part 2 (1979–2002) (A Spirit Steal a Child; The Festival of Death); Disfigured Night (1997–2002). Program 96 min.
Thursday, October 19, 8:30 (introduced by a representative of The Residents); Sunday, October 22, 6:00. T1
Demons Dance Alone. 2002. Photographed in night mode during the Demons Dance Alone tour, where the dark stage was flooded with infrared light, the raw footage was green, grainy, and without contrast. As a solution, The Residents computer-processed the footage, adding color and contrast and stylizing the individual songs. 95 min.
Friday, October 20, 6:00; Sunday, October 22, 4:00. T1
Pictured above:
The Residents, 2002. © The Residents
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