Special Interest

GENERAL VISUAL ART / LITERATURE DISCUSSION => GENERAL VISUAL ART / LITERATURE DISCUSSION => Topic started by: Andrew McIntosh on April 15, 2015, 05:16:04 AM

Title: The Chapmans
Post by: Andrew McIntosh on April 15, 2015, 05:16:04 AM
Just looking past any debates about relevancy or their association with the YBAs or whether they're just out to "shock" or whether they're past it or any of that - their ultra-cynical, anti-human vision is greatly appealing.

(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01351/Chapman-brothers-c_1351142i.jpg)

(http://www.hypocritedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/opera1019_museo_madre.jpg)

(http://www.tatintsian.com/images/small/chapmans_forehead.jpg)

(http://cdn1.jakeanddinoschapman.com/wp-content/uploads/3874-680x820.jpg)

(http://images.artnet.com/images_us/magazine/news/nathan/jake-chapman-sir-norman-rosenthal-10-31-11-9.jpg)

(http://pfeiferthompson.squarespace.com/storage/JointheBigPicture_ChapmanFamilyCollection_10.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1388356459584)
Title: Re: The Chapmans
Post by: SiClark on April 15, 2015, 10:42:02 AM
Their 'Hell' (which got burnt down in a big warehouse fire and they re-made it as 'Fucking Hell') is superb. I spent a long time walking around all of the display cases with the insane amount of detail of nazi soldiers torturing people. Not everything they have made is great but I love their sense of humour.
Title: Re: The Chapmans
Post by: Major Carew on April 15, 2015, 11:28:22 AM
I was lucky enough to actually see 'Hell' before the warehouse burned down (wasn't it an insurance scam? I seem to remember hearing the owner of the warehouse was responsible?), and barely being a teenager at the time I thought it was well funny... The attention to detail was absolutely mind blowing.They've since done smaller versions of it and I think the replacement ,which they tried to make even more brutal, was called 'Fucking Hell'? They also did an exhibition that had full size Nazi's bumming each other, classic!....
Title: Re: The Chapmans
Post by: tiny_tove on April 15, 2015, 11:47:18 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md5uTCI8IuI

here it is for those who don't know them!
Title: Re: The Chapmans
Post by: martialgodmask on April 15, 2015, 02:41:37 PM
I really like their stuff and I like their dismissive "so what?" kind of attitude.

This short interview is interesting for how it shines a light on the connection between their work and video nasty horror rather than politics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QeNatsDV4I

Kermode (interviewing), who I normally don't mind, comes across as a bit of a bellshiner though.
Title: Re: The Chapmans
Post by: cantle on April 15, 2015, 08:04:11 PM
I like what they do but they are lazy; farming out all the donkey work of making the little figures for the 'Hell' piece(s) to art school graduates....
Title: Re: The Chapmans
Post by: HongKongGoolagong on April 15, 2015, 08:30:12 PM
Quote from: cantle on April 15, 2015, 08:04:11 PM
I like what they do but they are lazy; farming out all the donkey work of making the little figures for the 'Hell' piece(s) to art school graduates....

Artists have done that kind of sub-contracting forever though - Warhol certainly wasn't the first.

I'm a big fan of Jake's mischievous anti-book or pisstake of experimental literature Meatphysics which Creation published in 2003.