Hell Mouth 3 the Decline of Western Civilisation I–III

18.5. – 27.7.2019

Monster Chetwynd Hell Mouth 3

Monster Chetwynd Presents: The Decline of Western Civilisation I–III Directed by Penelope Spheeris

Eastside Projects + Home of Metal Eastside Projects Hell Mouth 3 86 Heath Mill Lane Birmingham, B9 4AR Monster Chetwynd [email protected] +44 (0)121 771 1778 The world is understood through music. All meaning comes to us through

Heavy Metal. We can take control of the monsters of the hell mouth to create our During exhibitions our gallery is open own meaning and form new myths. Fragments of songs and half-remembered Wednesday to Saturday, 12–5pm performances form constantly re-imagined futures and new social aspirations.

Monster Chetwynd’s Hell Mouth 3 channels the decline of Western Civilisation and legacies of Heavy Metal through the mouth to hell of a 16th century engraving of a human devouring monster. Chetwynd’s ‘monster’ will hold the future of metal, Birmingham and humanity in it’s mouth as bands play for their lives within the maelstrom of history and the failure of current society to support and empower the once and future workers of the hell mouth of Very Heavy Launch Supersonic Festival industrial Britain. Friday 17 May, 6–9pm Saturday 20 July and Sunday 21 July (Performance and bands from 7pm) (Supersonic tickets only) Chetwynd’s fascination with Penelope Spheeri’s three part film series The Decline of Western Civilisation I–III from 1981 to 1998, featuring many of the Live bands: Chlamydia the Band & 12.30–2pm ‘most influential and innovative musicians and groups of all time’, has informed and Moving Plates. Doom Yoga (booking required) many of her works over the past decade and screenings support this large scale sculptural and performative spectacle set in the industrial space and area 4.30–8pm of Eastside Projects and Digbeth at the heart of Birmingham. Live Bands: VÄLVĒ, Apostille, Victim, Water, Paddysteer and Guttersnipe. Monster Chetwynd (previously known as Spartacus Chetwynd and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd) is a British artist based in Glasgow, known for reworkings of iconic moments from cultural history in elaborate, compulsive and evocative performances. Chetwynd’s practice intertwines performance, sculpture, painting, installation and video. Her work incorporates elements of folk plays, street spectacles, popular culture, from Heavy Metal music and Star Wars to Berthold Brecht’s Three Penny Opera, and surrealist cinema. Her performances and videos often employ troupes of performers, including friends and relatives of the artist, and feature handmade costumes and props. In 2012, she was nominated for the Turner Prize. Monster Chetwynd presents: Home of Metal The Decline of Western Civilisation I–III Directed by Penelope Spheeris

A key influence on the practice of Monster Chetwynd, The Decline of Western Civilisation I–III is a labour of love over two decades by Hollywood director Penelope Spheeris. The Decline of Western Civilisation I–III charts the sub- cultural behaviours of heavy metal, punk, glam metal, hard core, and gutter punk from 1980 to 1988 in Los Angeles.

The films form a trilogy by Spheeris, depicting music scenes in Los Angeles during the late 20th century offering a look into a subculture that was largely ignored by the rock music press of the time. Bands included are Black Flag, the Germs, X, Alice Bag Band, the Circle Jerks, Catholic Discipline, and Fear with footage and interviews of legendary metalbands such as Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Megadeth and Motorhead.

Penelope Spheeris is an American film director, producer and screenwriter who is best known as the director of Wayne’s World — her highest-grossing film.The Decline of Western Civilisation (1981) was her first documentary film which she followed up with The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988), this time about the Los Angeles heavy metal scene. She later returned to the streets of Los Angeles and the punk rock scene in 1998 for the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part III . In part I, Spheeris haunted the city’s sleazy punk dives gathering what has become a priceless time capsule of the nihilistic, sometimes violent, scene that would later inspire the hardcore and grunge boom captured in Part III.

Some see the second Decline rockumentary as a comedy classic, though that was not Spheeris’ intention. Ironically, Spheeris had previously declined the chance to direct This is Spinal Tap: “I feel stupid for turning down Spinal Tap, but I didn’t do it because I didn’t want to make fun of heavy metal,” she says. “I respected the music at the time. But I really think the key word for my films is sociological. I’ve always been a music fan, but really the human behaviour aspect is important to me. That’s what I love. The music is important, but it’s really an excuse to see how human beings behave.”

To watch the films you need to enter into our Second Gallery through an earlier Hell Mouth sculpture by Chetwynd and we have a lounge set up in the space utilizing the flooring by Freya Dooley along with comfy seating to spend a few hours watching the trilogy. Eastside Projects 10th Anniversary Artist’s Print Portfolio

Monster Chetwynd’s Bat Opera (Heavy Metal) Print Portfolio presents eight new images adapted from her ongoing Bat Opera series of paintings. This is a rare chance to own a substantial artwork by the Turner Prize nominated artist at a special price as a fundraiser for Eastside Projects.

Combining the delicate, sensitive paintings of what the artist describes as ‘unworthy subject matter’ with the graphic approach of Heavy Metal imagery, Chetwynd’s bats link her story telling and performative processes with the metal genre’s use of heavy distortion and dark depressing subject matter. The artist sees her bats as anti-heroes, channelling Heavy Metal’s working class expression of industrial control through the occult threatening of traditional values, set against the backdrop of her new exhibition Hell Mouth 3 and Home of Metal’s celebration of Black Sabbath’s 50th Anniversary and the legacies of Heavy Metal.

The eight prints are silk screened in 3 colours on mirrored silver polychrome card and are presented in a black portfolio box with signed and numbered sticker in an edition of 50.

Along with the Metal influences and legends, such as Ozzy Osbourne’s infamous biting the head off a bat on stage in the early 1980s, Chetwynd’s series of beautiful miniature paintings depict different species of bats in varying settings and groupings and are inspired by the miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard, Constable’s cloud studies, and zoological staged photography.

Chetwynd explains her fascination with bats: “They pollinate at night, they have radar, they are mammals with wings and, of course, they have the stigma of evil. They are perfect as unworthy subject matter. Early on I had a quick recognition that I could use them as comic anti-heroes. That classic tension in painting between repulsion and attraction… Within painting discourse this can be dubbed simplistic, but for me, this makes them great subject matter — intriguing, repulsive, yet anthropomorphic qualities and, again, a history of being associated with evil.”

Edition of 50 To order one of the editions email Box set of 8 prints, each 26 × 34 cm [email protected]. Special Price: £500 (£1500 after 27 July 2019) Instalment plans are possible if required. 3

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1. Monster Chetwynd Hell Mouth 3, 2019 5 × 5 × 7.5m Paint, latex, paper, fabric, foam, wicker, timber, glue, fixings. 3. Penelope Spheeris 2. The Decline of Western Civilisation Monster Chetwynd I–III Hell Mouth 3 Wallpaper, 2019 Part I, 1981: 100 mins 5 × 13.6m Part II, 1988: 93 mins 4.2 × 4.98m Part III, 1998: 86 mins 4.3 × 3.33m (Screening on demand between Digital prints on paper, tape, nails. 12 and 5pm, Wed to Sat)