During my dissertation and even now I have been looking at the chapman brothers. I have been interested in how they have taken works from goya and changed them in different ways. Insult to Injury is my favourite work from theirs as I was interested in the original series before it had been edited. However after they edited it I had preferred their version that they changed, using clowns and cartoon style images to replace the heads of the victims and people committing the evil acts. They have taken something which has documented such evil deeds against men which would not usually be seen, in this case causing controversy due to the content and making it alright to be seen. They have almost turned the work into a more light hearted type of joke which has their own name on it although they have only altered the orignial image. I also admire how they had not selcted a few to change, they had decided to commit to the whole series and change 80 odd etchings creating their own collection of works. There is one image of the insult to inury collection which I always think of first. This is the image of men who are tied to poles waiting to die. There are seven of these men buy only six of them have been edited with these new faces. This has made the etching a bit more light hearted and it is now taken less seriously. I also like how this is interpreted by an audience, some see it as art while others see it as vandalism. Personally i see it as art.
Another piece they have created which has inspired a piece of work I am planning on created is called ‘Hell’. This is made up of hundred of little figures representing the nazis who are all fighting and experimenting on eachother. This involved many different little scenes taking place and there is always something which catches your eye and keeps your focus on the work. There is even a little figure of hitler which is seen to be painting the events which are occuring.
The last example of the chapmans work which I am going to share is called fuckface and is a sculpture of a child which has had male genetalia put onto his face. This has disfigured the boy, taking an innocent figure and tainting it with something which is seen to be private and even seen by some as offensive. This has taken something which a majority see’s as a figure of good and innocence and changed it to look more like a monster while still keeping some of the qualities it had obtained from before it was altered.
I like the chapmans work because it is different and all the works are daring and out of the ordinary. The work challenged society and aims to stir up controversy within an audience. I enjoy this about the work as it has dared to challenge the views of an audience and even offends people which I have become interested in trying to achieve in some of my own work, only not anywhere near to the standard shown here.
