MARVIN GAYE CHETWYND
… ARE U BATS? 1

Exhibition
Opening hours: Mon–Thu, 7.45am–8pm; Fri, 7.45am–3.30pm

Bergens Rådhus
Rådhusgatan 10, 5014 Bergen

Parallel to a new episodic commission by Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, PRAXES takes a closer look at the artist’s existing works, happenings, props, inspirational sources, and other odd facets of her practice. Serving as the focus of … Are u Bats? 1 are Chetwynd’s Bat Opera paintings, an ongoing series created over almost two decades.

Presented in the lobby of the City Hall of Bergen throughout 2016, this body of works consistently depicts the same nightmarish motif: bats and their surroundings. Like a chronometer, the series has followed Chetwynd through a personal archeology of painting techniques and styles. Cute and horrendous, corny and ferocious, the Bat Opera paintings are tangentially linked to an eponymous live performance by Chetwynd, which, in turn, took inspiration from the opulent glam rock performer Meat Loaf’s epic album Bat Out of Hell—a churning amalgam of beauty and beast that utterly fascinates the artist. In Bergen, the long-term focus on these ongoing works points to the need for withdrawal, meditative quiet, and the perpetual return to small-scale, meticulous art production within Chetwynd’s largely high-spirited participatory and collaborative practice.