February 21

The starting point for Rosebud is a finding of censored art books in a Tokyo library. Rosebud mixes close-ups of these books – explicit details carefully scratched out by hand to comply with Japanese censorship laws, with footage filmed in nature and is accompanied by an amplified soundtrack of muffled sounds. The new assemblage and the tactile manual act of scratching out do not seem to mask anymore, only drawing us near and bringing us closer (to touch).

Welsh video artist James Richards’ emotive films weave together a diverse range of found and original footage exploring the role of intimacy in relation to desire and physical proximity. Richards uses images and sounds that surrogate the liquidity or porosity of the body, of being inside and outside, slipping between the sensual image and its abstraction.