James Richards: Migratory Motor Complex

Collective is delighted to present Migratory Motor Complex, an exhibition by James Richards, shown in collaboration with Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. The audio installation is re-configured for the City Dome at Collective’s new home on Calton Hill and will be shown for the first time in Scotland as part of Edinburgh Art Festival, having previously appeared at the 57th Venice Biennale and at Chapter, in Cardiff, Wales.

Migratory Motor Complex features a six-channel electro-acoustic installation that explores the capacity of sound to render artificial spaces and locate sonic and melodic events within them. Woven throughout the piece are re-occurring vocal and musical motifs that have been developed in collaboration with Kirsten Evans and Samuel Williams, students of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The work has been tuned in-situ, with Richards reacting to the acoustic contingencies of the City Dome to create a cinematic and multi-sensory experience, an arrangement of vivid emotional cues to be navigated subjectively.

James Richards (born 1983) was brought up in Cardiff and lives and works in Berlin. His work makes use of a growing bank of material that includes found and recorded sound, cinema, works by other artists, camcorder footage, murky late-night TV and archival research. Recent solo exhibitions include Speed (with Leslie Thornton), Künstlerhaus Stuttgart; Crossing (with Leslie Thornton), Secession, Vienna (both 2018); James Richards, Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Berlin (2017); Abyss Film, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover; Requests and Antisongs, ICA London; Crumb Mahogany, Bergen Kunsthall and Radio at Night, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux (all 2016).

Migratory Motor Complex was curated by Hannah Firth and produced by Chapter for Wales in Venice at the 57th Venice Biennale of Art 2017. The exhibition was commissioned by the Arts Council of Wales and Wales Arts International with support and collaboration from the Welsh Government and British Council. A new iteration travels to Collective for James Richards’ first solo show in Scotland and is made possible with support from the Art Fund.

Edinburgh Art Festival runs from July 25–August 25, 2019.