Although since his debut, his video installations
have always included original self-produced footage, James Richards is known
most of all for his activity of appropriation of pre-existing visual material from
a wide range of sources. Old B movies, television programmes, porn videos, news
reports and medical documentaries represent just a part of his vast personal
archive, which on the basis of an initial set of videotapes and DVDs has been
constantly increased over the years thanks to the abundance of contents offered
by the web. The choice of going back after a certain length of time to the
clips used in other works allows him what’s more to maintain a high level of
experimentation. [...]
