“Cadence”
Baden Pailthorpe
7 Mar → 5 Apr 2014
The institution of the military is steeped in performative traditions, rituals and practices. Indeed the collective military body can be thought of as being characterised by a carefully calibrated choreography of movement.
Cadence is a series of four new media artworks whose subject sits between war and performance. In Cadence I, the figure of the Australian soldier is placed within formal landscapes appropriated from pro-military cinema and military training simulators.
Rather than enacting standard military gestures or postures, the simulated soldier performs a slow and poetic dance. The usual politics of movement, discipline and posture of the military body are subverted, and instead rendered soft and expressive.
The seductive visual rhythm of cadence, camouflage and natural mimicry in these works gesture towards the dark mysticism of military history, where soldiers and psychedelics have often combined to disrupt landscapes and produce mystic escapes.
Baden Pailthorpe is an Australian new media artist. His work engages with the political and conceptual potential of technologies and cultural content. His recent exhibitions have been focused on the politics and aesthetics of military technologies, including simulators, cinema and video games.