Centripetal Forces

Centripetal Forces is an eight-channel video installation commissioned for the exhibition Shaun Gladwell: Stereo Sequences in 2011.

Centripetal Forces is an elaboration of Gladwell’s interest in the dynamics and composition of the spinning figure, first seen in the single-channel Pataphysical Man (2005). Centripetal Forces takes the original image of the spinning figure and extends it into a series of comparative studies of gesture and movement by different performers. In the centre of each screen a performer enacts a basic spinning action over and over, each dancer representing a different language or subculture of movement.

Gladwell further pushes this internal paradox with a shift in perspective from the original work, changing the camera viewpoint from a front-on to an aerial view. The black and white negative images are projected on to screens suspended in the ceiling of the gallery, appearing as spinning astral bodies – a sparkling universe of whirling figures. There is a clear connection here to the Planet & Stars Sequence and to Parallel Forces. Are these bodies orbiting each other? Are they aware of their relationship to a wider planetary system? Are they stationary or are they turning on a still point?

The performers are training rather than performing; their focus is on repetition and rotation of movements. There is Emma Magenta, a capoeira dancer, whose roughly circular movements recall her performance in Woolloomooloo Night (2004). Her movements are more muscular and less centred than the tight, graceful, fluid pirouettes of Vivienne Wong, ballerina with the Australian Ballet. Anthony Lawang, a break dancer from Melbourne, performs a series of floor-based manoeuvres, transitioning from a top rock position to a backspin and a windmill, climaxing in a tight backspin, disrupting any sense of how his body is oriented spatially. Simon O’Brien, a world champion freestyle BMX rider, performs a series of highly technical spins in which the bike frame and his body are linked and twisted by concentric forces. In contrast to these athletic routines, Kathryn Puie spins her body on stilts. In the overhead shot foreshortening her body, we see her body constantly shifting and shuffling in order to remain upright. Gladwell himself performs on a skateboard, spinning continuously. Contemporary dancer Lee Wilson uses his body as the pivot point for a whirling bread tray that flies above and around him. Michelle Shimmy and Maddie Schonstein, professional pole dancers, perform an improvised routine together on a pole, experimenting with movements and pushing their bodies into unrehearsed positions.