Selected Works
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Video Works Catalogue (2013–)
videoworkscatalogue.ryliejamesthomas.net
From Propositions for a Ritual (2012)
Propositions for a Ritual is a set of actions performed, in variations, over the last few months of this semester. Each action/performance is a meditation—an isolating act therapeutic to the artist—but also sometimes disconcerting to the viewer. A ritual, to paraphrase Evangelos Kyriakidis (ed., 2007, The archaeology of ritual), is a label given to an action that, in a sense, seems irrational or illogical to the non-participant; applied as classification by the onlooker, or as an acknowledgement of the potential to seem irrational or illogical to onlookers by the performer. Approaching the work from this perspective a ritual can be thought of as a language of gesture and material. Propositions for a Ritual offers these actions as suggestions for the viewer to carry out themselves, or at least contemplate.
Stases (2011)
Stases is a series of short—a few frames only—loops of exploitative video content sourced from the Internet. Each source video was found through a methodical keyword search targeting videos that exploit their subjects; Stases is an attempt to rehumanise these subjects. By a process of stripping away video elements (sound, narrative, time, detail—) Stases focuses and fixes this material, and reintroduces the spectator’s suppressed unease.
Selected video sketches / diary entries (2009–)