Playback is the second installment of two collaborative exhibition projects curated by Paul Middendorf and hosted by Fresh Arts. Playback features a collection of videos by artist Britt Ragsdale that explore and re-interpret the body language typically featured in classic romantic cinema from the 1930s through 1970s.

Distinct actions, postures, gestures and facial expressions are synonymous with this genre of film for how they communicate both love and love lost. The intense, somewhat forceful embrace of a leading man is a recurrent symbol of affection, much like the tricky flick of a female's foot upon receiving a kiss from her true love. Ragsdale examines these themes via a pastiche of romance movies that are distilled to single moments and emphasized through imitation, tableau, and repetition. The familiar body language, when extracted, transforms into an inelegant guise for deeper social and psychological issues to be examined.

Britt Ragsdale is a visual artist currently living and working in Houston, with a BFA from Lamar University and an MFA from the University of Houston. Ragsdale has exhibited her work throughout Texas. She is interested in the social anthropology and psychoanalysis of pretense, exploring this theme by means of photography, video, installation and performance.

On view from June 14 through July 12.