Spartacus Chetwynd "Home Made Tasers"

The New Museum of Contemporary Art

poster for Spartacus Chetwynd "Home Made Tasers"

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The New Museum will launch a new pop-up program in its adjacent street-level storefront space at 231 BOWERY called ‘Studio 231.’ This series, overseen by Massimiliano Gioni, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions, will focus on ambitious new productions by emerging artists from around the world in a space that suggests the creative environment and improvisational potential of the studio. The Museum will inaugurate the series on October 26, 2011, with a new installation and performances by Spartacus Chetwynd.

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, to literature, art history, and philosophy. As in her previous projects, the installation at 231 BOWERY will be conceived specifically for the site, which will be activated by performances and direct interactions with audiences for the duration of the exhibition.

Spartacus Chetwynd draws from 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, who initially studied anthropology, uses the idea of bricolage as a physical practice as well as 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, Spartacus Chetwynd, A Tax Haven Run By Women, 2010. Frieze Art Fair, London. Photo: Marie Luisa. Copyright the artist. Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Karl Marx, and Jabba the Hut can comfortably, if not peacefully, co-exist. The informality of Chetwynd’s performance and the effortless mix of high and low sources turn her performances into remarkably democratic spaces for exploring ideas about history, class, and contemporary culture.

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Schedule

from October 26, 2011 to January 01, 2012

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