What can you tell us about your upcoming exhibition at ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum?
Big white museum space filled with strange and weird objects for the entertainment of yogurt eating flaneurs. Same as before, but much, much better – the art, that is, not the yogurt. The yogurt is good, but not as good as the art, unless we decide to show yogurt, in which case the art and yogurt will be the same thing, only much, much better.
You are one of three artists exhibiting in the Focus gallery in 2018, a space dedicated to expanding the experience of art beyond just ‘vision’. How will you utilise this space, and what primary emotions will you try to evoke with these works?
We are all for expanding the experience of art beyond just vision, but our expansion will not be supplanting vision in favour of evoking primary emotions. It’s safe to say that the work eschews sight, but certainly not in favour of emotion. Certainly, the ocular fixation on a work of art is idiotic, reducing to aesthetics an object which relies on at least history in order to beg meaning. Emotion is equally idiotic, since it presumes the relation between a work of art and viewer to be typically confessional, that is to say, a cathartic piece of art and a weepy-eyed spectator. Hence in answer to the question, we will utilise the space to show objects and things which will be utterly devastated if visitors a) just look at them b) have a primary emotional reaction to them.
How do you decide upon a topic when approaching a new artwork - what are your biggest influences?
Birth, work, God, death and the struggle with cosmic insignificance...
You both worked as artists’ assistants for another Artimage member duo, Gilbert & George. What influence from this time, if any, can you recognise now in your artwork or processes?
Never work for artists.
Your artworks can be considered very divisive, yet with the right frame of mind, also humorous. What compels you to create in this way and to what degree are reactions part of the work’s intentions?
We reflect upon the conditions of our experience, first as tragedy then as farce.
Who are your main artistic inspirations?
Ooooo….. um….. er…. Ah wait a minute… no… its gone…. Oh… ummm… errrr… hang on… what’s her name… y’know… thingy…. thingy… with the big nose and the stupid voice….
What made you decide to join Artimage, and what have been the greatest benefits?
We like the ritual sacrifices and the free soap.*
*[Editor’s note: Unfortunately, Artimage membership does not include ritual sacrifices and/or free soap.]
View all of Jake and Dinos Chapman's works here, or browse our curated selection below:
Back to the end of the beginning of the end again, 2016
Life and Death Vest III, 2017
Bedtime Tales for Sleepless Nights II (IV), 2012
Double Deathshead, 1997
The Disease Within The Disease, 2013
The Exhibition
Jake and Dinos' Chapman's exhibition at ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum also features a brand new large-scale installation, 16 June - 21 October 2018.
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Images: March Of The Banal, 2008 © Jake and Dinos Chapman. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2018; Kino Klub (Cinema installation), 2013 © Jake and Dinos Chapman. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2018; Life and Death Vest II, 2017 © Jake and Dinos Chapman. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2018. Image courtesy Blain|Southern. Photo: Jack Hems; Back to the end of the beginning of the end again, 2016 © Jake and Dinos Chapman. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2018; Life and Death Vest III, 2017 © Jake and Dinos Chapman. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2018. Image courtesy Blain|Southern. Photo: Jack Hems; Bedtime Tales for Sleepless Nights II (IV), 2012 © Jake and Dinos Chapman. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2018. Photo: © White Cube (Ben Westoby); Double Deathshead, 1997 © Jake and Dinos Chapman. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2018. Image: © British Council; The Disease Within The Disease, 2013 © Jake and Dinos Chapman. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2018. Photo: © White Cube (Ben Westoby).