SHAUN GLADWELL

The title of Shaun Gladwell’s latest exhibition, Riding With Death: Redux, takes its name from his very first, still unseen video work from 1997. Gladwell’s work has traced a considerable journey over the last 15-odd years, one that has seen him rise to be one of Australia’s most exciting video artists. Despite this sometimes meteoric rise, however, both here and abroad, there are themes that Gladwell insistently comes back to. The distortion of space-time, the contrast between representation and epistemic experience, speeds and temporality, the inescapable physicality of they human body, mortality – these are things that appear throughout Gladwell’s practice, cropping up at various points and in various ways, but nonetheless giving his body of work a unity that brings a weight to his practice that is rare in early-career artists. Riding With Death: Redux, showing at Anna Schwartz Gallery until December 10th, reflects each of these recurrent themes, with mortality really taking centre stage. Video and still works featuring parkour, skateboarding and motorcycles serve as a stark point of contrast with the skeletons, vast landscapes and monuments that pepper the show. Here, the modernity of the sports is contrasted with the timelessness of their settings, the fragility of the human body with the unforgiving city, the speed of movement with the distortion of the video work and the stasis of images. Gladwell’s star is undoubtedly rising fast, and his latest show attests to this. Well worth a look.

Until Dec 10, Anna Schwartz Gallery, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, 8580 7002, annaschwartzgallery.com