Shaun Gladwell: The Lacrima Chair + Collection

Overview

After a lengthy period of living in London, Shaun Gladwell has returned home to Australia. As one of our most eminent video artists, he has a long list of accolades. Some of his career highlights include representing Australia at the 53rd Venice Biennale and serving in Afghanistan as the official war artist in 2009. Spread across two venues, this exhibition is a mid-career survey of his work to date. Curated by Dr Barbara Polla and Prof. Paul Ardenne, the collection at UNSW Galleries is selected from various public and private collections.

Over at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation is The Lacrima Chair, a newly commissioned project built around the pioneering Australian aviator Nancy Bird Walton. There is no way of entering this exhibition without walking through a curtain of mist. In the centre of the gallery, an aircraft chair is doused in a constant stream of water. He conveys an anecdote about his grandfather struggling to watch an outdoor film in the rain and describes the attempt to emulate this blurred visibility.

“I have a fascination with people being inside images,” says Gladwell. If you should choose to sit in the chair and be showered, the accompanying video work revolves around a fictional episode where Walton is slowly bobbing up and down in the ocean, presumably post-plane crash. If she is on the brink of drowning, she doesn't show it. Gladwell depicts her as remarkably composed — the same kind of serenity that characterises his other video work.

There is also a connection to Francis Bacon’s Pope Head series. But in Gladwell’s work, the pope’s habit is replaced by a poncho and he interprets the vertical lines in the paintings as strokes of rain. “It’s a bit like screaming after a lot of long-haul air travel in economy,” he says.

The use of water as a medium is also present at UNSW Galleries. And there are many different types of water — from shining puddles to foaming waves. There is a contemporary reworking of romanticism that drives his practice. He blends urban and natural environments, representing them through his affinities with flight and extreme sports. For instance, a more recent work contains echoes of Gladwell’s Storm Sequence (2000). A BMX rider loops around a concrete platform, backgrounded by an English beach and swooping seagulls. The slow motion accentuates the elegance and rhythm of his movements — it is oddly calming.

Reflecting on the trajectory of Gladwell’s art, it seems he is drawn towards notions of time and flow. Some works feel a little sparse and difficult to grasp, as if the themes have been separated out. In any case, the collection is the most comprehensive solo show to be exhibited at UNSW Galleries. And with The Lacrima Chair encased in a hazy waterfall, it’s a pretty spectacular show.