Shaun Gladwell

Last updated
Shaun Gladwell
Shaun Gladwell Plank with Kangaroo 2014.jpg
Gladwell planking with a Kangaroo
Born1972 (age 50–51)
Sydney, Australia
Education Sydney College of the Arts, UNSW College of Fine Arts, Goldsmiths, University of London
Known for Video art, sculpture, photography, painting
Notable work Storm Sequence , The Turning (film)
Movement Multimedia art
Patron(s) Elton John

Shaun Gladwell (born 1972) is an Australian contemporary artist whose work spans moving image, painting, photography, sculpture, installation, performance and virtual reality.

Contents

Early life

Gladwell was born in Sydney in 1972 and graduated from Sydney University's Sydney College of the Arts. He subsequently gained a master's degree from the University of New South Wales' College of Fine Arts and undertook further studies as an associate researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London (2001–2002) on a Samstag Scholarship from the University of South Australia. [1] Initially, the artist studied painting but explored video and other mediums as a postgraduate student. In the late 1990s, Gladwell was a member of the Sydney-based art collective, Imperial Slacks. [2]

Work

2000–2013

Gladwell's video work from 2000 until 2013 saw the artist attempt to systematically catalogue many of the 'movement cultures' that were emerging and evolving within his generation. In interviews, Gladwell has described his interest in forms of Street dance, extreme sport, and skateboarding.[ citation needed ]

Maddestmaximvs 2009

From 2007 until 2009 the artist applied many of his ideas concerning performance, gesture and the transformation of urban space to natural environments. During this period, Gladwell spent extended amounts of time in the Australian desert, producing his iconic series of works titled Maddestmaximus (2009). The series included video of Gladwell car surfing (Interceptor Surf Sequence) and ritualistically burying roadkill kangaroos (Apologies 1–6).

Official Australian war artist 2009–2010

In late 2009, Gladwell was the Australian War Memorial's Australian official war artists in Afghanistan. This commissioning program began in World War I with Gladwell being the first video/new media artist in the history of the scheme. Gladwell has stated that during this commission he became both reliant upon and extremely critical of military technology within the theatre of war. A key work Gladwell made during his time in Southern Afghanistan is titled Double Field/Viewfinder (Tarin Kowt), 2009–2010. [3]

The artist's work from this commission has been documented and analysed in the book Double War by Kit Messham-Muir, published by Thames and Hudson, 2015. [4]

Skateboarders VS Minimalism 2016

In January 2016, Gladwell presented a new video work titled Skateboarders VS Minimalism. The project was commissioned for the 40th Anniversary of the Sydney Festival and illustrates the artist's interest in juxtaposing popular sports culture with art history and museum culture. [5] The video features skateboarders (including professional Rodney Mullen) riding on exact replicas of well known minimalist artworks. The soundtrack for this video features the music of Philip Glass.

Shaun Gladwell: Pacific Undertow

In mid to late 2019, Gladwell exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney with Pacific Undertow. Pacific Undertow was the largest survey exhibition to date of the work of Australian artist Shaun Gladwell, best known for his videos representing the body in motion. The exhibition title, Pacific Undertow, is taken from a pivotal video piece. It resonates with a sense of elemental forces, motion and the heft of gravity: key principles that inform Gladwell's work. [6]

Virtual reality

In 2016, Gladwell co-founded BADFAITH, an independent virtual reality content collective with senior film and television producer Leo Faber. [7] Members of BADFAITH include artists, film directors, and a scientist involved in VR and AR research. [8] They have been dubbed VR pioneers by Vogue [9] and Vice [10] – who described their approach to the new immersive medium as "punk".

In interviews, Gladwell stated BADFAITH as a direct reference to the concept proposed by Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Belvouire. [11] Gladwell has produced several VR experiences through the BADFAITH network including the 6 minute animation Orbital Vanitas. Orbital Vanitas premiered at Sundance's 2017 New Frontiers. [12]

In 2017, Orbital Vanitas was also shown at Cannes film festival and the Sydney Film festival amongst others. Orbital Vanitas was also selected for distribution via the New York Times op docs VR distribution platform NYTVR. Under the BADFAITH moniker, Gladwell and Faber co-curated the 2017 Sydney Film Festivals VR program. [13] In 2016 Gladwell was the first documented artist to sell a virtual reality artwork on the Australian market. [14]

Opera

Gladwell was commissioned by the 2013 Gergiev Festival to produce video art for a concert version of Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. The opera was performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin on Sunday 15 September 2013 at De Doelen, Rotterdam. [15] Gladwell interpreted Richard Wagner's opera as an Australian surf film by replacing all sailing references in the libretto with ones involving surfing. Regarding this work, Gladwell has stated that he was inspired by the seminal Australian surf film Morning of the Earth (1971). The video used a cast of performers that were both professional dancers and surfers.

Performance and choreography

Gladwell has presented several live performances and choreographies since 2011. Gladwell's performance piece Reversed Readymade (2014) features a professional BMX bicycle rider performing stunts on Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel (1913). The work premiered at the inaugural Per4m program at Artissima 21, Turin, Italy, in November 2014. Initially, the piece was performed by professional Welsh BMX rider, Matti Hemmings, however subsequent performances in Australia have been enacted by Simon O'Brien.

Film

In 2012, Gladwell directed a chapter titled "Family" for the feature film The Turning (2013).[ citation needed ] The anthology film is based on a collection of short stories by Australian author, Tim Winton. Gladwell cast Meyne Wyatt [16] and Wayne Blair [17] into the roles of two brothers in dispute. The Turning premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival on 3 August 2013.

Writing

In 2015, Gladwell published an artist book titled PATAFUNCTIONS in association with his solo exhibition titled The Lacrima Chair at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. [18] [19] Gladwell describes the book as "fictional theory" [20] and "simulated theory." The text features contributions from Denise Thwaites, Paul Patton and Kit Messham-Muir. PATAFUNCTIONS offers an exegesis on Gladwell's art practice and his wider thinking on issues of function and transformation. The cover design for PATAFUNCTIONS is an exact graphic appropriation of the Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Series design by Jim Fleming from the 1980s.

Criticism

Gladwell's entire artistic career has been questioned by a number of critics, particularly within Australia. Negative criticism was surveyed in a 2015 feature article in The Australian newspaper by Ashleigh Wilson:

Official war artist. Australia's representative in Venice. A prominent spot at the Royal Academy. A distinct theme has been emerging in recent times with Gladwell's career. But if this skateboarder turned artist has become something of an establishment figure, he's managed to do it without the assistance of Australian art critics. This newspaper's Christopher Allen has described him as overrated, while his counterpart at The Sydney Morning Herald , John McDonald, wrote a piece recently that questioned his appeal: "Watching the inexorable rise of Shaun Gladwell during the past decade makes me feel like the only teetotaller at a drunken party." [21]

The art critic most vocally against Gladwell's work is John McDonald who identifies the work as 'hype'. In doing so, McDonald calls into question the Australian art institutions that support Gladwell:

If measured solely in terms of his representation in public collections, his international exhibitions and institutional honours, Gladwell is certainly "significant", but one would have to be very trusting in our institutions to believe that the most rewarded artists are necessarily the best. [22]

Exhibitions

Gladwell has been exhibiting extensively throughout Australia, Asia, the United States and Europe since 2001. He has participated in many international biennales and triennales, including: the Yokohama Triennale (2005); Busan Biennale and Bienal de São Paulo (both 2006); La Biennale di Venezia (2007 & 2009); the Biennale of Sydney, Taipei Biennial and Biennale Cuvée, Linz (all 2008); Cairo Biennial (2010); the Shanghai Biennale, China (2012); The California-Pacific Triennial and SCAPE 7, Public Art Christchurch Biennial, New Zealand (both 2013); as well as la Biennale d’Arte Contemporain, Douai (2015). In 2009, Gladwell was Australia's representative at the 53rd Venice Biennale. [23]

Elton John

Gladwell's photographs, lightboxes and videos have been collected by Elton John, [24] particularly work relating to human interaction with other species and the natural world.

Skateboarding

Whilst skateboarding frequently features in Gladwell's artworks, he himself competed in freestyle skateboarding competitions throughout the late 1980s. He occasionally competes in freestyle skateboarding events such as the 2011 Malmo Super Bowl in Sweden and the 2012 World Roundup in Cloverdale Canada. For the 2013 SCAPE 7 public art triennale in Christchurch, New Zealand, Gladwell designed skate-able sculptures that reflected the fractured urban landscape post 2011 Christchurch earthquake. [25] For the 2016 Perth International Arts Festival, Gladwell was in a public conversation with legendary freestyle skateboarder Russ Howell. [26]

Environmentalism

The artist has described himself as "environmentally concerned", presenting his ideas on art and the environment at ARTCOP 21 in Paris (2015), [27] having been a finalist in the COAL Prize for Art and Environment that same year. [28]

Gladwell lives and works in Sydney and London.

Literature

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual reality</span> Computer-simulated experience

Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment, education and business. Other distinct types of VR-style technology include augmented reality and mixed reality, sometimes referred to as extended reality or XR, although definitions are currently changing due to the nascence of the industry.

Keram Malicki-Sánchez is an actor, musician, writer, filmmaker, interactive media and virtual reality developer, multimedia artist, and event producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Milk</span> American entrepreneur

Chris Milk is an American entrepreneur, innovator, director, photographer, and immersive artist. He is co-founder and CEO of Within, a virtual reality technology company, and co-founder of Here Be Dragons, a virtual reality production company. Milk began his career directing music videos and commercials for leading artists and brands, and in subsequent years became best known for bridging the gap between emerging technologies and new mediums for storytelling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Grayson (artist)</span> British artist, writer and curator (born 1958)

Richard Grayson is a British artist, writer and curator. His art practice encompasses installation, video, painting and performance. He investigates ways that narratives shape our understandings of the world. His art and curatorial practice focus on narrative and the visual arts, belief systems and material expression, and ways cultural practices allow translation between the subjective and social/political realms.

Daniel Askill is an Australian filmmaker and artist who uses film, photographs, video installation and sculpture in his work. He has directed short films, music videos, commercials and fashion films. He is currently based between Sydney and New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oculus Rift</span> Virtual reality headsets by Oculus VR

Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality industry. It was the first virtual reality headset to provide a realistic experience at an accessible price, utilizing novel technology to increase quality and reduce cost by orders of magnitude compared to earlier systems. The first headset in the line was the Oculus Rift DK1, released on March 28, 2013. The last was the Oculus Rift S, discontinued in April of 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiel Courtin-Wilson</span>

Amiel Courtin-Wilson is an Australian filmmaker. He has directed over 20 short films and several feature films. His debut feature film, Hail, premiered internationally at Venice Film Festival in 2011. He is also a musician, music producer, and visual artist.

Lynette Wallworth is an Australian artist and filmmaker, known for her use of emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR), and interactive installations. She is known for her 2016 VR project Collisions, which tells of the "collision" between Aboriginal Australians and western culture in the form of British nuclear testing at Maralinga in the 1950s. She has won two Emmy Awards for her work: one for Collisions and one for Awavena.

Catherine Richards is a Canadian new media artist. Richards is known for her work with early virtual reality technologies. She was the first artist to use VR technology in a work of art in Canada, which was incorporated in her 1991 artwork Spectral Bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Cardboard</span> Discontinued virtual reality platform

Google Cardboard is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform developed by Google. Named for its fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is inserted, the platform was intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and development in VR applications. Users can either build their own viewer from simple, low-cost components using specifications published by Google, or purchase a pre-manufactured one. To use the platform, users run Cardboard-compatible mobile apps on their phone, place it into the back of the viewer, and view content through the lenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonny de la Peña</span> American journalist

Nonny de la Peña is an American journalist, documentary filmmaker, and entrepreneur.

Storm Sequence is a video artwork by Australian contemporary artist Shaun Gladwell completed in 2000. The video is arguably the best known work of Gladwell's artworks and features the artist skateboarding on a concrete platform by the oceanside. Within the 11-minute duration of the video, Gladwell performs balletic freestyle skateboarding manoeuvres as a storm gathers intensity in the background. Storm Sequence is one of the first videos to be traded as an artwork within the Australian Art market, thus launching the medium commercially in Australia.

<i>Björk Digital</i>

Björk Digital is an "immersive" virtual reality exhibit by Icelandic musician Björk featuring 360-degree VR music videos from her eighth studio album, Vulnicura. The exhibit debuted at Carriageworks in Sydney, Australia as part of the Vivid Sydney festival on 4 June 2016 and has traveled across the globe to Tokyo, London, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and other cities around the globe. Originally announced as an 18 month tour, the exhibit is still running.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Landau</span> Israeli entrepreneur, artist, and researcher (born 1973)

Daniel Landau is an Israeli entrepreneur, artist, and researcher. He has presented his work in virtual reality at museums, festivals, and conferences worldwide. Landau is involved in the Israeli startup scene, developing behavioral assessment and learning tools using virtual reality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viacom NEXT</span> American media conglomerate

Viacom NEXT was Viacom's production studio focused on building immersive experiences, interactive music videos, narrative worlds, and video games. Based in New York, the studio employed developers and specialists with expertise in 3D modeling and animation, storytelling, and experience design.

Jess Johnson is a New York-based New Zealand contemporary artist who works in drawing, installation, animation, and virtual reality. Her drawings depict alternative realms while her collaborations with Simon Ward and Andrew Clarke adapt the world of her drawings into video animations and virtual reality.

Susan Norrie is an Australian artist working primarily with found film and original video installations to explore political and environmental issues. In 2007 she represented Australia at the 52nd Venice Biennale.

Gene Sherman is a philanthropist, academic and expert on art, fashion and architecture. In 2018, she founded the Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B3 Biennial of the Moving Image</span> Creative festival that takes place in Germany

The B3 Biennial of the Moving Image is a cross-media moving image festival in Frankfurt, Germany. It features films, media art, games, and artistic confrontations with VR, AR and MR by international artists and creative minds. The main focus of the biennial is on the international discourse on the moving image and the developments in storytelling in the digital age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Semionov</span> Russian artist

Denis Semionov - is a Russian new media artist.

References

  1. ↑ "Samstag alumni – University of South Australia". unisa.edu.au. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  2. ↑ Lenny Ann Low (7 August 2015). "Imperial Slacks: "They f---ed, made art, drank, slept and contributed to the city"". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  3. ↑ "Double Field/Viewfinder (Tarin Kowt)". nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Messham-Muir, Kit; Gladwell, Shaun, 1972–, (photographer) (2015), Double war: Shaun Gladwell : visual culture and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Port Melbourne, Victoria Thames and Hudson, ISBN   978-0-500-50054-5 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ "Skateboarders vs Minimalism at the Cutaway Barangaroo Reserve – Sydney Festival 2016". Sydney Festival. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Shaun Gladwell: Pacific Undertow | MCA Australia".
  7. ↑ "We Are The Robots – A new epoch of Virtual Reality at the Sydney Film Festival 2017". Neighbourhood Paper. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  8. ↑ Francis, Hannah (5 January 2017). "Sundance Film Festival puts faith in Australian virtual reality collective". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  9. ↑ "Virtual reality pioneers Shaun Gladwell and Leo Faber talk Badfaith Collective". Vogue.com.au. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  10. ↑ "meet badfaith, the collective taking a punk approach to virtual reality | read | i-D". i-D. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  11. ↑ "Badfaith Puts Good Faith in VR | FilmInk". filmink.com.au. 20 February 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  12. ↑ Robertson, Adi (21 January 2017). "Orbiting Earth in a virtual reality skull is a great way to remember you're going to die". The Verge. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  13. ↑ "VR films big hit at Sydney Film Festival". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  14. ↑ "Subscribe | theaustralian". www.theaustralian.com.au. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  15. ↑ "Rotterdam / Yannick Nézet-Séguin dirige Der Fliegender Holländer | OperaClick".
  16. ↑ Meyne Wyatt at IMDb
  17. ↑ Wayne Blair at IMDb
  18. ↑ Kit Messham-Muir (3 March 2015). "Shaun Gladwell is returning to Sydney, and may not shed tears". The Conversation. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  19. ↑ Gladwell, Shaun; Thwaites, Denise, (writer of supplementary textual content.); Messham-Muir, Kit, (writer of supplementary textual content.); Patton, Paul, (translator.); Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (issuing body.) (2015), Patafunctions, New York, New York Semiotext(e), ISBN   978-0-9874909-7-1 {{citation}}: |author4= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ↑ Baudrillard's concept of theory-fiction or fictional theory is addressed in both http://www.ctheory.net/book2.asp?bookid=12 and http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/baudrillard/#5 , retrieved 12 April 2016
  21. ↑ "Nocookies". The Australian . Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  22. ↑ "Shaun Gladwell". johnmcdonald.net.au. 13 March 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  23. ↑ "Shaun Gladwell". australiavenicebiennale.com.au. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  24. ↑ "High hopes: storm boy skates ahead". Financial Review. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  25. ↑ "SCAPE 7 – Inflected Forms". SCAPE Public Art. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  26. ↑ "Nocookies". The Australian. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  27. ↑ "Face to face with Shaun Gladwell". ArtCOP21. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  28. ↑ "MELD nominated for the COAL PRIZE ART & ENVIRONMENT 2015". meld.cc. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  29. ↑ "Richard Grayson, "On Motorbikes (Between worlds)", catalogue essay for Shaun Gladwell's exhibition, "Cycles of Radical Will", pub. De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, England 2013". www.richardgrayson.co.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2016.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.