Matthew Tumbers
Keith Gallasch
Video was one of the strongest components in the recent showing of Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship 2003 finalists at Sydney’s Artspace. In his finely shot and beautifully edited Pablo Velasquez Shoeboard Remix, Matthew Tumbers’ anonymous protagonist does everything you’d like to do with a skateboard— without actually using one. Feet skid assuredly across surfaces, the body twists and glides with the trademark crouch and angularity, the camera goes closeup on the virtuoso ride. Is this for real? Tumbers writes that his video “mimics and parodies a form, namely skateboard manoeuvers with elements of ‘street dance’, creating a fictional form that could well be real and achievable.” It’s pretty convincing, but the pleasure beyond surprise is in the dexterity of the very making. It’s a witty variation on other skateboard videos doing the rounds. Tumbers is a COFA graduate who has exhibited solo at Block and TAP galleries and whose Gumnut Xanadu 3: Expanding Conglomerates opens soon at Kudos Gallery.
RealTime issue #57 Oct-Nov 2003 pg. 31
