Kestner Gesellschaft

James Richards and Leslie Thornton

03 Dec 2016 - 05 Feb 2017

James Richards, Requests and Antisongs (Detail), 2016 ( Collage )
Courtesey der Künstler
JAMES RICHARDS AND LESLIE THORNTON
Abyss Film
03 December 2016 – 05 February 2017

James Richards (*1983 in Cardiff, lives in London) whose video »Rosebud« (2013) was nominated for the Turner-Prize 2014 is famous for his provocative and visually seductive videos. For over ten years Richards has been collecting images and video recordings as well as filming everyday life himself. He combines his video material in video collages made of online-clips, art films, intimate home videos, archived pictures, obscure TV-clips, internet streams or old VHS-tapes from second-hand-shops. His repertoire of video material ranges from horror films from the 1980s to his private recordings and is constantly replenished. Based on his video archive Richards has created an idiosyncratic poetic vocabulary that seems to be familiar and strange at the same time. His images evoke memories that captivate the observer for a moment but are never clear in their authenticity. In cooperation with the Kunsthalle Bergen and the ICA London.

At the Kestner Gesellschaft the show will be augmented by a collaborative project with the American avant-garde filmmaker Leslie Thornton (*1951 Knoxville, Tennessee, US). These two important video artists from different generations share similar artistic methods: they use found and self-produced images to create affective and intimate collages.
 

Tags: James Richards