Monster Chetwynd

Monster Chetwynd has generously produced two limited edition silkscreen prints in support of Tate. Charles Darwin, 2020 and Steve Irwin, 2020, both a limited edition of 50, are based on two original paper collages from an ongoing series, Xerox Masks, which celebrates the lives of people that have inspired Chetwynd during her research. These particular collages are part of a subsection of conservationists whose work has made environmental and wildlife conservation accessible and engaging to mass audiences.

The collage featuring Charles Darwin is the result of Chetwynd’s long fascination with the naturalist, beginning when she was a teenager reading, The Voyage of the Beagle. Both a scientific journal and a vivid travel memoir, The Voyage of the Beagle, published in 1839, aroused international interest at the time and has remained a popular read for audiences beyond academia. For Chetwynd, documentaries which portrayed Darwin as a family man as well as details of his creative approach to science solidified her fascination. She was particularly inspired by the fact that Darwin played the tuba to earthworms in his garden to observe their reactions to sound.

Charles Darwin, 2020 and Steve Irwin, 2020 are sold individually. Each print is signed and numbered by the artist and comes unframed.

• Artist Monster Chetwynd
• Artwork Charles Darwin
• Dimensions 48.8 x 35.9 cm
• Material Silkscreen print on Somerset Tub Sized Satin 410gsm paper
• Edition Edition of 50, signed and numbered
• Date of work 2020

Monster Chetwynd (B. 1973, London) (previously known as Spartacus Chetwynd and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd) is best known for anarchic and bric-a-brac style performances featuring troupes of performers in hand-made costumes, props and sets. Her practice includes painting, video, installation, collage, live performance and sculpture. She incorporates elements of folk plays, popular culture, the natural world and surrealist cinema in her work.

Chetwynd was commissioned to produce the Winter Commission at Tate Britain in 2018 and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2012. Her work has been included in Tate Britain’s Walk Through British Art: 60 years (21 April 2019 – 17 May 2020).