Jake & Dinos Chapman: March of the Banal

British artists Jake & Dinos Chapman (b. 1966 and 1962) have been leading figures in the art world since the 1990s. From mid-June, their confrontational and shocking universe is showing at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in the exhibition Jake & Dinos Chapman – March of the Banal. The exhibition is the second in the Intermezzo series, focusing on art where the perception and interpretation of the art works occur through more than the faculty of vision.

“In many ways, it’s a disheartening exhibition. It will shock and activate our audience, making them reflect on why we feel affronted or otherwise piqued by what we see. And hopefully, it will make us more acutely aware of some of the problems facing the world, says Erlend G. Høyersten.” museum director, ARoS.

About the exhibition
One wall of the gallery space is painted the colours of the rainbow, in powerful contrast to the rest of the rather lugubrious presentation. Within this highly contrasting setting, the audience meets a number of the archetypes of evil as perceived by Jake & Dinos Chapman; Ku Klux Klan mannequins, atrocities in the form of Francisco Goya’s portrayals of the outrages committed by French troops against the Spanish population during the 1800s, and eleven watercolours originally painted by Adolf Hitler and later modified by the Chapman brothers.

“The brothers’ artistic project focuses on evil. As they see it, human beings are not born evil, but become evil and mindless if they forget to stop and think. As such, the forces of evil in this exhibition are not deep-seated and demonic, but rather an image of the evil forces latently lurking in anyone. That’s precisely why it’s banal, says Rasmus Stenbakken.” curator-in-charge, ARoS.

About Jake & Dinos Chapman
Graduating from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1990, the Chapman brothers are part of the core of the generation of Young British Artists (YBA) with includes Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, and Sarah Lucas. They are among the leading sculptors of their generation. For two decades, they have created substantial works addressing complex issues including experience and morals.

The brothers’ work is provocative and grotesque. They use shock as a tactical approach as do many of the other YBA artists. Beneath this tactical use of shock, their works contain a significant in-depth analysis of ways in which society relates to war, violence, sexuality, and morals. Jake & Dinos Chapman use provocation as an aesthetic to secure a confrontation with the viewer, forcing him or her to take a stand.

Catalogue
To coincide with the exhibition, ARoS will publish a catalogue with a peer-reviewed scholarly text by Camilla Skovbjerg Paldam, associate professor, PhD, at the School of Communication and Culture, Art History at Aarhus University. Furthermore, Niels Henning Falk Jensby, author of the critically acclaimed book Techno, has written a fictional text about the art of Jake & Dinos Chapman.

This exhibition has been made possible with generous support from Nordea-fonden.

Press contact: Anne Riis, press officer T: +45 2888 4464, ari [​at​] aros.dk