The brothers Grimm of art, Jake and Dinos Chapman, have returned to their hometown of Hastings for their “biggest and baddest” show to date. The Chapman Brothers have always courted controversy in their work, setting out to deliberately shock and repulse their viewers.
In the past the brothers have exhibited re-worked watercolour paintings by Adolf Hitler and detailed the atrocities of war with their intricate, 30,000 piece model Hell’. The exhibition titled ‘In the Realm of the Unmentionable’ is being held in Hastings’ Jerwood Gallery, an award winning beachside contemporary space.
The show features a new and previously unseen body of work by the “art vandals” and will also present pieces commissioned exclusively for the exhibition. The Chapman Brothers have scoured the antique emporiums, junk shops and flea markets of the town for old, forgotten artwork, which they have then “fixed” in their signature anarchic style. The Brothers have also cheekily recreated Tracey Emin’s iconic tent, which chronicles everyone she slept with between 1963-1995. The original tent was famously destroyed alongside some of the brother’s work in the momart warehouse fire of 2004. Dinos Chapman said, “We’ve got the outposts guarded so if she (Emin) does intend to come here we can quickly unpack it and put it away.”
In true Chapman Brothers style the gallery was also temporarily transformed into a one-day-only tattoo parlour, in which members of the public could get a distinct design by the artists indelibly inked onto their skin by professionals. It’s great to see such significant and brilliant artists as the Chapman Brothers exhibiting virtually on our doorstep in Sussex. If you are interested in the work of the Chapman Brothers our sister gallery Lawrence Alkin Gallery current has an incredible series of colour etchings available, follow this link to find out more.
image credit Jerwood Gallery and Guardian
