Diamond psyched sequence: Stoner

Shaun Gladwell finds a still moment at the opposite end of sport's narrative. His videos capture elite competitors as they establish an intense inner focus in the lead-up to an event. Stepping back from the drama of the contest, and the unrelenting forward trajectory of a television broadcast, Gladwell highlights the introspective character of sport. Although the competition is played out in public, before an audience in the thousands, victory rests on it having already taken place, visualized in the mind of the competitor. The athlete's warm-up, or psych-up, routine—an interior vision that precedes and shapes action—parallels the creative process of the artist; both players must unite vision and action into a moment that is simultaneously visual, physical and psychologically loaded. At the same time, Gladwell insists that a crucial aspect of sport evades representation (and by extension, the commodified imagery of entertainment). The still moment prior to competition shows nothing of the long training regime that preceded it and can only hint at the psychological depths sustaining the action about to be unleashed.