This giant blue head is part of Thunder, Crackle & Magic, a colourful installation that Chetwynd created for Tate Modern in London. The work is inspired by Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute (1791), in the film version by Ingmar Bergman (1975).
Her series of monumental heads grew out of research into medieval processions and theatre traditions. Christian theatre makers used “Hellmouths”: large stage sets that represented the entrance to hell. HELLMOUTH 5 (2025) refers to this history, to the mythical underworld and to the Roman city gate. Ancient cultures, mythology and science fiction come together here.
The sculpture invites you not only to look, but to walk through it. It recalls a mythological portal, a magical passage into a parallel world. Whoever walks through this work steps into a new possibility, somewhere between childlike imagination and adult experience.
The work is an example of her “impatient sculpture”. Chetwynd does not wait patiently until she finds all the right materials to make the perfect artwork. Instead, she uses simple materials such as wood, cardboard and papier-mâché, bricolaging them into a do-it-yourself gateway.