Shaun Glad­well
MAD­DEST­MAX­IMVS: Plan­et & Stars Sequence

For the 2009 Venice Bien­nale, Shaun Glad­well will present a new major body of work in the Aus­tralian Pavil­ion which will con­sid­er the over­all pavil­ion site, both inte­ri­or and exterior.

MAD­DEST­MAX­IMVS began in 2007 and has con­tin­ued with a series of record­ed per­for­mances and sculp­tures that inves­ti­gate rep­re­sen­ta­tions of land­scape and the mytho­log­i­cal fig­ures pro­ject­ed into these spaces. The instal­la­tion at Venice will con­sist of sev­er­al inter­sect­ing projects through var­i­ous loca­tions and performances.

Extend­ing Gladwell’s ongo­ing engage­ment with extreme sports, MAD­DEST­MAX­IMVS relo­cates inher­ent­ly urban activ­i­ties to the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment. This dis­place­ment encour­ages unique inter­pre­ta­tions of the per­for­mances, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly acti­vat­ing the land­scape with per­form­ing bod­ies and actions.

The Aus­tralian hin­ter­land and desert regions are the fields in which obscure activ­i­ties take place. The activ­i­ties are high­ly charged: road­kill kan­ga­roos are found on the side of high­ways by a black leather clad motor­cy­clist and giv­en a rit­u­al­is­tic bur­ial, a fig­ure surfs a vehi­cle as it moves through desert roads, an indi­vid­ual rapid­ly paints and sub­se­quent­ly eras­es images of the/​a uni­verse in open arid set­tings, and a group of fig­ures spin against nat­ur­al rock formations.

Rather than pic­tur­ing land­scapes, Gladwell’s project ques­tions the his­to­ry and rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the land­scape. Intro­duced with local ref­er­ences, these ques­tions offer wide­spread iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and rel­e­vance. Through per­for­mance, Glad­well re-imag­ines famil­iar ter­ri­to­ry, nego­ti­at­ing works with­in the con­ven­tions of art his­to­ry and tra­di­tion­al land­scape paint­ing. This med­i­ta­tive inves­ti­ga­tion artic­u­lates Gladwell’s dis­cur­sive approach and struc­tures the project as a free, con­tem­pla­tive space.

In the Aus­tralian Pavil­ion, evoca­tive images are pro­ject­ed along­side sculp­tures which ques­tion func­tion, and the rela­tion­ship of the object to the mov­ing image. Per­for­mance loca­tions are reflect­ed in sculp­tur­al works that inter­ro­gate mor­tal­i­ty: an inte­ri­or human skull is inti­mate­ly inves­ti­gat­ed – the entire instal­la­tion oper­at­ing as a van­i­tas or memen­to mori.

Tania Doropou­los, Cura­tor, 2009