26 October 2011 - 01 January 2012
|
| ©
Spartacus Chetwynd, The Snail Race, 2008. Massimo De Carlo, Milan,
Italy. Copyright the artist. Courtesy Massimo de Carlo, Milan, and Sadie
Coles HQ, London |
| |
SPARTACUS CHETWYND
Home Made Tasers
This fall, the New Museum will present a new installation and series of
performances by Spartacus Chetwynd. Taking place in a new exhibition
space at 231 Bowery as part of the Studio 231 program, this will be the
first American museum exhibition by the London-based artist. Over the
past ten years, Chetwynd and her traveling band of amateur actors have
realized a number of exhibitions and performances throughout Europe.
Utilizing handmade costumes and sets, her work draws on a wide range of
influences from film and television, literature, art history, and
philosophy. As in her previous projects, her installation at the New
Museum will be conceived specifically for the site and will be activated
by performances and direct interaction with the viewer for the duration
of the exhibition.
Chetwynd uses a variety of historical theatrical forms, from Brechtian
drama to puppet shows, often within the same performance. The result is
an experience that is accessible, humorous, and disorienting. Chetwynd
initially studied anthropology and uses the idea of bricolage as both a
physical practice and the organizing principle to bring together the
disparate images and characters within her work. The carnivalesque world
she creates is one in which figures like Emperor Nero, Mae West, Karl
Marx, and Jabba the Hutt can comfortably—if not peacefully—coexist. The
informality of Chetwynd’s performances and the effortless mix of high
and low sources make them remarkably democratic spaces for exploring
ideas about history, class, and contemporary culture. For instance, her
recent exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ , London, titled "Odd Man Out,”
invited viewers to enter a carefully choreographed world in which every
decision they made had a range of political consequences.
A number of Chetwynd’s projects have focused on the local environment
outside of the gallery space and have embraced the everyday theater of
the street. In her 2005 performance The Walk to Dover, she retraced the
journey of Charles Dickens’s titular character David Copperfield on a
seven-day expedition from London to Dover in which she and her merry
band of travelers suffered both hardships and joyous adventures as they
expanded the scope of their theater to include the contemporary English
countryside. Her project for the New Museum will continue her attempt to
create new collective narratives from diverse strands of culture.
www.newmuseum.org
|