Haus Mödrath – Räume für Kunst presents When We Were Monsters, the largest exhibition by the artist to date. Occupying all four floors of Haus Mödrath, Richards has convened works which spatially and conceptually chime with one another across the numerous rooms.
Weaving together Richards’s sound, video works and sculptural works, the show also maps the relationships and influences around the artist’s practice, including a number of collaborative artworks made with long-term interlocutors, artworks by close friends and influential figures.
Known for his provocative and visually seductive moving-image works that collage together a wide range of source material – such as intimate home movies, archival footage, television signals and rich musical soundtracks – James Richards’s work addresses the relentless flow of imagery that has come to define the 21st century, carving out a space where personal politics and digital materiality might meet. Concurrent with filmmaking, Richards has presented numerous exhibition projects informed through archival research as well as through ongoing collaborative exchanges with other artists.