James Richards
»The Misty Suite«, 2009
Video, colour, sound, 6:47 min.
Courtesy of James Richards, Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul and LUX, London.

November 18 – December 18, 2011

Invited by Dan Kidner (Director, Picture This, Bristol)

»The Misty Suite« (2009)

James Richards (born Cardiff, 1983, lives in London) has been accumulating imagery for years, trawling the digital detritus that litters the furthest reaches of the internet and stockpiling old VHS tapes purchased from charity shops. From this store that includes everything from Eighties horror movies, through to instructional videos, Richards has constructed a poetic vocabulary at once familiar and strange. He seeks out images that may touch a memory, but fail to hold it; and sounds and voices that draw us in but fail to reassure.

»The Misty Suite« (UK, 2009, 6:47 min, video, colour, sound) begins in silence with shadowy images hard to identify. After almost two minutes there are fragments of sound, and then an actor reading from a John Updike poem, taken from a late night Radio broadcast. This is laid over what looks like an industrial film about face recognition software. After feeling somewhat alienated the viewer is then drawn in via a series of slow moving zooms cribbed from »Nightmare on Elm Street« (1984), an instructional video featuring a drawing class, and a journey into the cosmos taken from who knows where. Over the end of this sequence he has synced more poetry. An unknown poet softly recites, ‘Bear down, breath… Bear down, bear down, breath…” Seduced, bewitched, and then released, the effect is like waking from a particularly fuzzy, erotic dream, and finding yourself staring at the DVD screen saver… it’s now late, and someone is singing about loneliness.

James Richards (born in Cardiff, 1983) lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include Chisenhale Gallery, London (2011); Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul (2011); DISAMBIGUATION (collaboration with Steve Reinke), Trinity Square Video, Toronto (2009); Swallow Street, London (2009). Group exhibitions include Clunie Reid and James Richards, Art Now, Tate Britain (2010), The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, The New Museum, New York (2009); Nought to Sixty, ICA, London (2008).