Artist of the day: Artist of the day, July 5: Shaun Gladwell, an Australian painter, photographer, sculptor, installation, performance and virtual reality artist (#737)

Friday, July 5, 2019

Artist of the day, July 5: Shaun Gladwell, an Australian painter, photographer, sculptor, installation, performance and virtual reality artist (#737)

Shaun Gladwell (1972) was born in Sydney 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 (2001-2) on a Samstag Scholarship from the University of South Australia. 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.

Videographer
Gladwell's video work from 2000-2013 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. From 2007-09 Gladwell spent extended amounts of time in the Australian desert, producing his iconic series of works. The series included video of Gladwell car surfing (Interceptor Surf Sequence) and ritualistically burying roadkill kangaroos (Apologies 1-6).

Official Australian War Artist
In late 2009, Gladwell was the Australian War Memorial's Official War Artist in Afghanistan. This commissioning program began in World War I with artists Will Dyson, Arthur Streeton, George Lambert and Frederick McCubbin, Gladwell being the first video/new media artist in the history of the scheme.

Skateboarders VS Minimalism
In January 2016, Gladwell presented a new video work titled Skateboarders VS Minimalism (2016). 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. The video features skateboarders, the soundtrack for this video features the music of Philip Glass.

Virtual Reality
In 2016. Gladwell co-founded BADFAITH, an independent virtual reality content collective
In interviews, Gladwell stated as a direct reference to the concept proposed by Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Belvouire. Gladwell has produced several VR experiences through the BADFAITH network including the 6 minute animation Orbital Vanitas, that's premiered at Sundance's 2017 New Frontiers. In 2017, Orbital Vanitas was also shown at Cannes film festival and the Sydney Film festival amongst others.

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 on Sunday 15 September 2013 at De Doelen, Rotterdam.

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.

Film
In 2012, Gladwell directed a chapter titled "Family" for the feature film The Turning (2013).The anthology film is based on a collection of short stories by Australian author, Tim Winton.

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. Gladwell describes the book as "fictional theory" and "simulated theory."

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.

Sir Elton John
Gladwell's photographs, lightboxs and videos have been collected by Sir Elton John, 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.

Environmentalism
The artist has described himself as "environmentally concerned", presenting his ideas on art and the environment at ARTCOP 21 in Paris (2015), having been a finalist in the COAL Prize for Art and Environment that same year. Gladwell lives and works in Sydney and London.

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