Pacific Undertow
Shaun Gladwell
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney

Shaun Glad­well: Pacif­ic Under­tow is the largest sur­vey exhi­bi­tion to date of the work of Aus­tralian artist Shaun Glad­well, best known for his videos rep­re­sent­ing the body in motion.

From ear­ly paint­ings and the renowned video Storm Sequence, 2000, through to new­ly com­mis­sioned aug­ment­ed and vir­tu­al real­i­ty (AR and VR) works, Pacif­ic Under­tow spans two decades of the artist’s prac­tice. It brings togeth­er dif­fer­ent media to trace Gladwell’s obses­sions with colo­nial and art his­to­ries, forms of every­day urban per­for­mance, and mortality.

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.

From draw­ing to VR, from scru­ti­n­is­ing marks made by the hand of the artist to the viewer’s com­plete immer­sion in an imag­i­nary world, Shaun Glad­well: Pacif­ic Under­tow is the artist’s explo­rative jour­ney through the tech­no­log­i­cal pos­si­bil­i­ties of 21^st-cen­tu­ry art.

Cura­tors: Natasha Bul­lock and Blair French