Come and See: Jake and Dinos Chapman at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery
I've been told many times by friends that the Chapman brothers are overrated. Whatever. I know for a fact that I am always entertained, provoked, and perplexed every time I see an exhibition from this duo – with all the flurry of emotions when I see great art. Even in the face of apparent multimedia absurdity such as the Ku Klux Klans hanging about corridors and mini-Ronald Mcdonalds crucified like Jesus, a Jake and Dinos Chapman exhibition will shock your guts out to the point that you laugh like a madman, because somehow it connects with our psyche and voila, it all makes sense. (I see Antony Gormley laughing his heart out watching the masters of history film amongst seated Ku Klux sculptures, and that in itself is a distraction).
And that is probably it. Going to see a Jake and Dinos Chapman show means, leaving your art prejudices at home. It's almost like a circus freak and you don't know where to look. There is too much going on in Come and See that it will definitely make your head spin, but it will show you the extraordinary output of the team from prints, collage, film, and sculpture – they got all the she-bang.
The glass cases with mangled miniature corpses piled up like mountains heads on sticks, Mcdonalds and Godzillas in The Sum of All Evil (2012-2013) are all gory but very detailed, and it's a testament to the brothers' craftsmanship skills and attention to detail, and the result of which is almost like a theatre with a dash of Apocalypse Now. Nothing is eye candy here but I think it's my favourite out of all the shows because it reveals that the Chapman brothers don't always just play the ridiculous game for shock effect. There is a level of maturity in a deep, dark level in this installation about the horrors and absurdity of war. And for Jake and Dinos Chapman, even if Godzillas roam the earth, wars will always be ridiculously insane.
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