Baden Pailthorpe

Formation (difference and repetition) V

Abstract:
Made using an Afghanistan-based video game, Baden Pailthorpe’s ‘Formation’ series explores the aesthetics and dynamics of opposition. In the work, two opposing forces of US soldiers and Taliban combatants follow invisible waypoints side-by-side. Oblivious to each other’s presence thanks to a hacked game setting, the usual violence of this relationship is transformed into a poetic, uncanny rhythm that repeats and amplifies the avatars’ movement.

Biography:
Baden Pailthorpe is an Australian interdisciplinary artist currently based in Sydney, Australia. Situated broadly in the field of new media, his work explores technologies and their political, cultural and conceptual potential. Pailthorpe’s work has been widely published and exhibited, with solo and group exhibitions both across Australia and internationally, including the Perth Centre for Photography (2008), Kings ARI , Melbourne (2010), Blindside Gallery, Melbourne (2011) Inflight ARI, Hobart (2010) and Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney (2010; 2012), as well as group exhibitions/screenings at Re-new Digital Arts Festival, Copenhagen (2011), Les Territoires, Montreal (2011) and Games Culture Circle, HBC, Berlin (2011). Baden Pailthorpe holds masters degrees from the Université Paris VIII, Vincennes-Saint Denis, France, and the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, Sydney, Australia. Pailthorpe has recently received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government’s arts advisory board, and is a PhD candidate with the University of New South Wales, Sydney. His work is held in numerous private collections.