James Richards’ approach transcends the usual constraints of film and video projection by accumulating imagery in a manner that resists completion. The video material is treated as a resource for constant manipulation, and the ‘work’ emerges through the act of continual reconstitution. James Richards re-edits footage from different sources – internet, TV, video archives etc. – and combines them in original sequences, often emotional and lyrical. Richards also shifts the form of presentation of his work, moving between formats associated with the public realm – the screening, or the live VJ mix – and the private and devotional form of the mixtape.

Rosbud (2013). The surface of a pond cuts the sexually explicit photographs in library books, which have been censored through the intense scratching of the image. The familiar and prohibited are thrown into relief, in unexpected combinations, which suggests a breaking down of surfaces and cultural (in)significance.

Not Blacking Out, Just Turning The Lights Off (2011/2012) is a poetic collage that mixes a wide range of sources, from video recordings to x-rays. The soundtrack is a combination of field recordings, fragmented and looping melodies, the poetry of Judy Grahn and the artist’s own voice. Richards appropriates the genres of reportage, performance and romance and mingles the strange, the sexual, and the magical. The sources of these fragments of reality can usually no longer be identified. Richards plays on the various layers of representation that does not distinguish between elements of sensory perception and media representation, and instead accentuates the position of the individual amongst it all.

James Richards lives and works in London. James Richards will take part in the 2014 Biennale of Moving Images organized by the Centre in September.