SHAUN GLADWELL - ART FEATURE | ART BASEL
16 Jun 2010
Art Feature
Art 41 | Basel
16 – 20 June, 2010
Basel, Switzerland
The notion of para-function is a key concern within the work of Shaun Gladwell. Over the last decade, the artist has engaged with activities such as urban extreme sports, for their ability to re-imagine civil space, public architecture and the body. The search for para-function (use value over sign or exchange value) is limitless and often appropriates art itself. Using skateboarding terminology, Gladwell has stated he considers a ‘Donald Judd as a grinder box and a Carl Andre as a manual pad’.
Gladwell has recently extended his interest in the creative dynamics of urban activity to those practices occurring in rural and desert environments. His project for the 2009 Venice Biennale focussed on performances in the Australian desert. Cars were designated as surfboards and highway roadsides became aerosol painting studios. The project offered recordings of casual, temporal transformations.
Gladwell’s project for Art Basel is inspired by the artist’s recent travels to Afghanistan with the International Security Assistance Force. The work imagines a creative misuse of assorted military equipment. The deadly function of the automatic weapon is disregarded for its new use as a precariously balancing/falling pole/phallus. Video cameras are played with as if they were training aids for target practice. The work is positioned amongst the artist’s personal experience and interpretation, and wider political and aesthetic speculations.
www.artbasel.com
Shaun Gladwell gratefully acknowledges the support of the Australian War Memorial.
Art 41 | Basel
16 – 20 June, 2010
Basel, Switzerland
The notion of para-function is a key concern within the work of Shaun Gladwell. Over the last decade, the artist has engaged with activities such as urban extreme sports, for their ability to re-imagine civil space, public architecture and the body. The search for para-function (use value over sign or exchange value) is limitless and often appropriates art itself. Using skateboarding terminology, Gladwell has stated he considers a ‘Donald Judd as a grinder box and a Carl Andre as a manual pad’.
Gladwell has recently extended his interest in the creative dynamics of urban activity to those practices occurring in rural and desert environments. His project for the 2009 Venice Biennale focussed on performances in the Australian desert. Cars were designated as surfboards and highway roadsides became aerosol painting studios. The project offered recordings of casual, temporal transformations.
Gladwell’s project for Art Basel is inspired by the artist’s recent travels to Afghanistan with the International Security Assistance Force. The work imagines a creative misuse of assorted military equipment. The deadly function of the automatic weapon is disregarded for its new use as a precariously balancing/falling pole/phallus. Video cameras are played with as if they were training aids for target practice. The work is positioned amongst the artist’s personal experience and interpretation, and wider political and aesthetic speculations.
www.artbasel.com
Shaun Gladwell gratefully acknowledges the support of the Australian War Memorial.
