BIO
Animal Charm,
a collaboration between Richard Bott (b. 1972 Louisville, Kentucky) and Jim Fetterley (b.
1971 Rockford, Illinois)—began using found VHS tapes to make video collages in 1995.
With the advent of YouTube a decade away, the artists culled bins of dead and devalued
media, including industrial and promotional videos, bargain vinyl LPs, and consumer-
grade electronics. They then combined disparate footage, using early nonlinear video-
editing software, to create unsettling and humorous works. The duo compose unexpected
juxtapositions in an attempt to subvert the original intentions of the found videos and to
expose their absurdity while eliciting new meanings from the detritus of culture.