Zygotic acceleration, Biogenetic de-sublimated libidinal model (enlarged x 1000), 1995
Jake & Dinos Chapman
They may be more self-proclaimed OAPs than YBAs (Young British Artists) these days, but Jake and Dinos Chapman, also known as the Chapman Brothers, are still getting up to their trademark art world perversions. Sometimes. Glamcult caught up with one half of the socalled “Brothers Grimm” following the launch of their new Amsterdam pop-up store in collaboration with Galerie Gabriel Rolt. Aptly situated amid the crimson glow of the Red Light District, the Fucking Hell shop is both an art exhibition and gift shop, where visitors can buy mini artworks and even get an original Jake Chapman drawing as a tattoo. “It’s new, but there’s no explicit strategy involved. No interest in e-commerce. We have a website [selling miniature artworks], but its more webshite than website,” insists Jake. Meanwhile, back in their native UK, Jake & Dinos made their debut appearance on Tatler Magazine’s “The People Who Really Matter” list this year. For those unfamiliar with this said list, it’s possibly one of the most schizophrenic around, comprising
623 people. But that’s not what makes it so bonkers—nor is it the fact that Tinie Tempah sneaks in among a top 40 primarily comprising royalty. The true curve ball is the fact that Jake ranks so much higher than Dinos. Jake figures: “It reads like an assassination wish list of all those provisionally nominated for the firing squad ‘come the revolution’…” Curious about how it all started, Glamcult asks Jake what it’s really like to make art with his brother, and how it first came about. “If we were plumbers working together we might have killed each other by now, but the nature of making art allows for siblings to work together without murder being the inevitable outcome.” The working relationship began in 1991, soon after the brothers graduated from London’s Royal College of Art. “The decision to collaborate was partially motivated by the sheer boredom of being so under-stimulated by the RCA,” confesses Jake. They’ve since twisted out an impressive and hellish oeuvre, which the art world has rapturously embraced—although Jake is underwhelmed: “Looking back
at our extensive body of work is a little like looking back at holiday snaps, which is always unrewarding and makes you wonder why you even bothered taking a camera on holiday. Looking back at our work is exactly the same.” The Chapman Brothers are skilled in pushing buttons, and they’ve been doing so for the past 20 years with their distinct brand of gleeful negativity, crushing all optimism that gets in the way. Their work is heavy, somewhat challenging. But if there’s one takeaway, it’s that they’re out to underwhelm expectations by producing work that fails to live up to any moral code; they’re in no way interested in conforming to society’s notions of the appropriate. Through an array of phantasmagoria, they reach an infernal tableau, often dealing in stereotypes, hijacked codes and symbols (swastikas next to smiley faces) and sublime images of mortality. Much has been said about the dichotomy between horror and hilarity in relation to the Chapman Brothers’ work. They’re serious about humour, seeing laughter as a disruptive
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force that has the power to shatter rigid structures of self-control. The brothers believe the world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind. Similarly, if you’re not able to laugh at this work, then perhaps the joke’s on you. “Those who are shocked by the work are already predisposed; it’s something they bring with them,” declared Dinos in an In Your Face interview with SHOWstudio in 2011. “What exists, exists in the mind of the viewer, not in the object.” The artists are interested in how far they can go in squeezing erroneous interpretations from their audience. The first work the Chapmans created as a duo was a nasty wall text in mud, and a wholly unholy version of Goya’s The Disasters of War plate, made by mutilating toy soldiers until they conformed to each of Goya’s 83 notorious etchings. “Sacrilege!” cried some. They’ve psychedelically defaced genuine Adolf Hilter watercolours, entitling the results If Hitler Had Been a Hippy How Happy Would We Be. Death threats from Neo-Nazis became just one of the extreme reactions.