JSC BERLIN: Artist talk James Richards + Screening

2G+ event. Limited capacity. No registration. Free admission. Doors open from 7:00 p.m.

Steve Reinke and James Richards
When We Were Monsters, 2020, video, 21′16″, color, sound.

The starting point of Steve Reinke and James Richards’ When We Were Monsters (2020) is a film made by the artist Gretchen Bender (1951–2004), who drew upon a cache of forensic images—depicting infections, deformities, and morbid injuries—given to her by a plastic surgeon. When We Were Monsters, made at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, is marked by an atmosphere of molecular porosity and existential vastness. Expanding Bender’s medical gaze to include a broader scientific gaze, Reinke and Richards weave an affective tapestry of images—featuring Ivan Pavlov’s ghost dogs, wounds, flowers, stains, fire ceremonies, and hallucinations, among other flashes of eros.