Stereo Sequences is on now at ACMI, a series of mesmerising video works down in their cave-like exhibition space. This show draws analogies between sometimes incogruent contemporary leisure activities - BMX acrobatics, pole dancing, break dancing, graffiti - in an examination of the nature and impact of art iconography and its easthetic resonances. The work feels at times like a self-portrait, at other times, like video performance...Gladwell's observations and participation within contemporary culture makes me think that his work will stand the test of time and become, in its own way, a contemporary artefact of its own moment.
Gladwell's work has been described as 'performative landscape', and it is this aspect that I am drawn to in thinking about my own ideas for an interactive project next semester. The circular video sequence in black and white (below) was particularly hypnotic and so evocative to the experience of the motion. There were 6 or so other videos similar to this one, where viewers are invited to sprawl out on the floor underneath and watch. The choice to invert the footage, (all the others were much darker than pole dancer) bestowed the image with a certain simplicity that highlighted the mechanics of each performance..... the black and white being an aesthetic I want to use in my approach to the interactive piece I have proposed.
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