Illness, treatment, recovery, conversation. This experimental short presents stories of illness and disfunction, bringing together but also separating two performers, their stories, their bodies.
“Duet confronts illness with a caress; it takes us on a journey with two different people with two distinct conditions that present obstacles to very specific senses. A film that makes us address the way that we feel, hear, see, taste, and speak.” —Lynne Sachs
John Muse makes experimental films, installation works, and paintings, writes criticism, and teaches visual studies at Haverford College
Since 1988, Muse has collaborated with Jeanne C. Finley on numerous experimental documentaries and multi-channel video installations. These works have been exhibited nationally and internationally at festivals and galleries, including the San Francisco International Film Festival, Berlin Video Festival, Toronto, and the World Wide Video Festival. Their works have also won awards at festivals such as the International Jewish Festival, the Charlotte Film Festival, and the Black Maria Film & Video Festival.
Finley+Muse were featured artists at the 2009 Flaherty Seminar, received a Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship in 2002, a Creative Capital Foundation Grant in 2000, and served as Artists in Residence at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center from 1995 to 1996.
Their film, video, and installation credits include Sleeping Under Stars, Living Under Satellites (2010), Imaginative Feats Literally Presented: Three Fables for Video Projection (2009), The Trial of Harmony and Invention (2003), The Adventures of Blacky (1999), and O Night Without Objects (1998).
Muse has also collaborated on projects with numerous other artists, including Megan Bridge, Carmen Papalia, Brendamaris Rodriguez, Mason Rosenthal, Laurie Wigham, and Pamela Z.
His recent films have been screened at the Athens International Film and Video Festival in Athen OH, Flex Fest in Tampa FL, the Ribalta Experimental Film Festival, and other venues.
Their gallery work is represented by the Patricia Sweetow Gallery.
John Muse is currently Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at Haverford College.