The exhibition Chicken by Jake & Dinos Chapman at the PinchukArtCentre in Kiyv (Ukraine) presents the specially produced new installation The Sum of all Evil, that represents a synthesized reflection upon the central themes such as the Holocaust, violence, and death. The Chapman brother’s fascination with sharp subversive humor and unbridled aggression is apparent throughout their work. The Sum of all Evil is an enormous miniature scenery, which is composed of four encased dioramas. It is a continuation to Chapman’s’ earlier epic nine-part installations, Hell (1999-2000) and Fucking Hell (2008). Jake & Dinos Chapman: Chicken brings together many of the artist’s most celebrated works: early iconic sculptures such as The Chapman Family Collection (2002), Sex I (2003) and From the Blackened Beyond (2011). In this video we attend the opening reception of the exhibition, and Eckhard Schneider, (General Director of the PinchukArtCentre) provides us with an introduction to the exhibition. Finally, Jake & Dinos Chapman talk in detail about the work The Sum of All Evil. The show runs until April 21, 2013.
Jake & Dinos Chapman:
“So we were thinking about the idea of a trans-historical view of human history. We were trying to challenge and undermine the idea that humans are the center of history. The work depicts a non-linear sense of history, hence the idea of having Ronald McDonald existing at the same time as dinosaurs ruins the notion that the work has any definitive historical truth.”
Jake & Dinos Chapman: Chicken at PinchukArtCenter, Kyiv (Ukraine). Interview with Eckhard Schneider, Jake & Dinos Chapman, February 15, 2013. Video by Frantisek Zachoval.
PS: Watch also: Tony Oursler: agentic iced etcetera. Solo Show at PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv, Ukraine.
> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.
Eckhard Schneider, General Director of the PinchukArtCentre:
Jake and Dinos Chapman’s work continually verges on the breaking of taboos. It can be extremely offensive in its use of black humor and subversive jokes, addressing issues of violence, war, the Holocaust, genetic manipulation and death in all their inhumanity. It seems they are always ultimately concerned with generating a moral panic. The selection of work in this case fulfills such claims in a very specific manner, in that they will be premiering a new work, Sum of All Evil, which references the Babi Yar massacres in Kiev.
PinchukArtCentre is an international center for contemporary art of the 21st century in Kyiv, the capital and largest city of Ukraine. It was opened in 2006 by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. Jake Chapman was born in 1966 in Cheltenham and Dinos Chapman in 1962 in London. They live and work in London. They have exhibited extensively, including solo shows at the The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (2012); Museo Pino Pascali, Polignano a Mare (2010); Hastings Museum (2009); kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2008); Tate Britain, London (2007); Tate Liverpool (2006); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2005); Museum Kunst Palast Dusseldorf (2003); Modern Art Oxford (2003) and the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2000); upcoming in November 2013 will be a solo show at the Rudolfinum, Prague. Group exhibitions include the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2011); the 17th Sydney Biennale (2010); Meadows Museum, Dallas (2010); Rude Britannia, Tate Britain (2010); Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2010); Hareng Saur: Ensor and Contemporary Art, S.M.A.K, Ghent (2010); the National Centre of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2009); Kunstverein Hamburg (2009); British Museum, London (2009); Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille (2008); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2008); ICA, London (2008); Annenberg Courtyard, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2007); Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2006) and the Turner Prize exhibition, Tate Britain (2003).