“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, 2013 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 (b. 1984) 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. Recent exhibitions include Hors Pistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2014; Cadence, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney, 2013; New Atlantis, km temporaer, Berlin, 2013; Moving_Image 10, La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, 2013; Yes We’re Open, NIMk, Amsterdam, 2012; Rencontres Internationales, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012.

Pailthorpe is undertaking a Ph.D in New Media Aesthetics at UNSW, Sydney. He holds an MFA from l'Université Paris VIII and an MA from the College of Fine Arts, UNSW. His work is held in private and public collections. In 2013, Baden was the inaugural artist in residence at the Australian War Memorial.

Cadence, (2013). HD video, colour, stereo sound, 6 mins.
Sound engineer: Jack Prest