Monster Chetwynd

Spartacus (one of the previous names for Monster Chetwynd) spent September 2006 living in Edinburgh, where she worked with different women she met, including students on a pattern-cutting course, a knitting demonstrator and a costumier. Together they devised a trip to the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles to make the short film The Call of the Wild. The film twins events on Lewis with the women’s lives in urban Edinburgh. The finished film draws on cinematic influences such as Walkabout, Picnic at Hanging Rock and the anthropological film Les maîtres fous by Jean Rouch.

‘Who Named the Lily?’ celebrates and laments the complicated history of the Crystal Palace. Monster Chetwynd plays the ‘Fact Hungry Witch’, who explores the story of the Amazonian waterlily, and reveals its links to engineering. The artwork brings to light the politics of Paxton’s developments in industry and architecture, however, the protagonist of this story is the waterlily – a catalyst for ground-breaking technological advancement.