Shaun Glad­well: Cycles of Rad­i­cal Will

De La Warr Pavilion


Hard­cov­er : 144 pages
Prod­uct Dimen­sions : 24.2 x 1.7 x 31.6 cm
Pub­lish­er : De La Warr Pavil­ion (18 Decem­ber 2013)
Lan­guage: : Eng­lish
Authors: Shaun Glad­well, Jean Wain­wright, Richard Grayson, Simon Rees

Designed by Fras­er Muggeridge


Shaun Gladwell’s solo exhi­bi­tion Cycles of Rad­i­cal Will is the Aus­tralian artist’s largest in the UK to date.

The exhi­bi­tion embraces flux and trans­for­ma­tion, reflect­ing the chang­ing sea­sons dur­ing the exhi­bi­tion. Over the course of five months, works are exchanged to offer a sequence of win­dows into Gladwell’s artis­tic prac­tice, uncon­strained by the lim­i­ta­tions of a sin­gle exhi­bi­tion project.

For Cycles of Rad­i­cal Will, Glad­well spec­u­lates on the cre­ative con­flict with­in var­i­ous cul­tur­al prac­tices and tra­di­tions. These con­flicts take the form of ​‘bat­tles’ – between beat-box­ers and urban dancers, skate­board­ers and BMX rid­ers, and (Mod) scoot­er enthu­si­asts and (Rock­er) motor­cy­cle rid­ers – and ulti­mate­ly between the extreme sports ath­lete and grav­i­ty itself. Ten­sion between these oppos­ing and often com­ple­men­tary prac­tices is the force that dri­ves groups towards inno­va­tion or oblivion.

Mini Ramp Inter­sec­tion (2013) – locat­ed on the Roof Ter­race – func­tions as a skate ramp and encour­ages its users either to joust with one oth­er or cal­cu­late their move­ments to avoid a crash. This work, along with an exten­sive pro­gramme of events, will allow audi­ences to par­tic­i­pate on numer­ous lev­els through­out the exhi­bi­tion. The events will include poet­ry work­shops offered to motor­cy­cle enthu­si­asts, late-night rooftop skate­board­ing ses­sions, film screen­ings, and flat­land skateboarding/​BMX jams.

The cat­a­logue, designed by Fras­er Mug­geridge, includes three essays by Richard Grayson, Jean Wain­wright, and Simon Rees which give an inter­na­tion­al per­spec­tive and insight­ful dia­logue on Gladwell’s body of work.

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