Taking place during the gallery’s twentieth anniversary year, Studio Voltaire presented an exhibition by Turner Prize-nominated Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, the artist’s first solo presentations to take place in a public gallery in London.
Chetwynd’s work Hermitos Children 2 was at the time the artist’s largest film commission to date. Chetwynd has become well known for her carnivalesque live performances, which feature homemade costumes and a varying ensemble of friends and family. These performances share elements of the bawdy anarchy of sixteenth-century wandering troupes, foregrounding key moments from art history and cultural production.
Hermitos Children is an ongoing project that takes the form of an experimental television crime drama. Each episode follows female detective Joan Shipman as she uncovers and solves sex-crimes. The film combines staged cinematic sequences with footage of live performances. Rather than documenting events chronologically, Chetwynd coheres both scripted and live elements into a single overarching narrative. Filming for Hermitos Children 2 took place in London, Nottingham, Gothenburg, Gozo, Glasgow and Australia. Hermitos Children 2 was presented in the gallery within a large-scale installation, incorporating locations and props from filming.
Hermitos Children 2 follows a long-standing collaborative relationship between Studio Voltaire and Chetwynd, having worked together on multiple projects since 2005. This film is a sequel to Hermitos Children, the pilot episode (2008), which was first presented at Altermodern, the fourth Tate Triennial (2009) and subsequently acquired by The Tate Collection.
