"F**king Hell": Jake and Dino Chapmen's "Hell" rises from the ashes
Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger.
Due to a fire in 2000 that destroyed key works of Charles Saatchi's art collection, Brit Art bad boys, Jake and Dinos Chapman's elaborate sculpture "Hell" was lost. Remade on a commission from Louis Vuitton owner Francois Pinault, "Hell" has risen from the ashes as "Fucking Hell" an even fiercer piece. "The idea of a world without 'Hell' was unacceptable to us," says Jake.
"Fucking Hell" -- Jake and Dinos Chapman website featuring an incredible short film documenting the piece.
"Hell" is first great work of the 21st century
Hitler gets Chapman treatment as "Hell" rises from the ashes
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Fantastic. Best name ever for a work of art.
My vision of hell is far worse than this. Think Hellraiser a bit. People being ripped apart constantly with red-hot hooked chains, and then devouring their own pieces, on land of burning sulfur, with, well, things far too graphic for BB. Unspeakable things, undreamable things.
Still, it's nice to know other people have their own detailed visions of Hell like me. Kinda makes me feel "normal". In a perverse way, it's kind of fun to imagine such "Hellscapes".
@ #1:
your vision of hell is nothing. mine is smashmouth headlining a never ending show with everclear, sublime and celine dion.
Hard to react to the diorama without seeing it in person, but I'd be more impressed with the film if they hadn't chosen such a cliched piece of music.
I wish there was some behind the scenes, how they created the piece. I love model making and stuff but don't have any talent.
Hey #2....thanks a lot. I am gonna have nightmares for weeks now!!
always been a fan of their work
Dang, there I was thinking to myself that I would try not to be so negative in any future comments on BB and you go and put something up about these useless excuses for "artists". Hell? Nah, not so much. Boy's bedroom, aged 12, more like. Seriously, J and D C are the most irritating and overhyped adolescents ever to have hit paydirt.
@3 ... cliche is what these fARTists are about
@7 ... well said
if you want to be really offended look these Brit artists up .....
dreadfull .............
Wow. Number 7 and 8 are absolutely ridiculous comments. As someone who has seen the original dioramas in person (the fire was in 2005, not 2000), I can say that they rank as not only physical awe striking (they created every square inch of all of that BY HAND, and trust me, there are at least 10 dioramas total, from what I remember, some of them containing hundreds of miniature people.) but it was also very emotional / emotionally draining as well. Maybe you're missing something by not seeing it in person, or maybe you're jaded and close minded. Oh well...
---Tom
Banjo music. It simply isn't hell without the banjo music.
The fire was in May 2004, not 2000.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3748179.stm
The Chapman bros are fascinating, brilliant artists, BTW. But maybe not quite the thing for those of a tabloid mindset.
If this model gets eaten by locusts ... I think we've found God's new favorite artists.
If the work bears resemblance to any of the Hellraiser films it's surely the third installment, Hell on Earth.
The truly awful (in the original sense of the word) thing about this work is that it depicts, as Robbie Burns would have it, man's inhumanity to man.
There's nothing religious in this, in fact, it shows how our own depravity not only informs our nightmares but our faiths as well.
Would Dante's descriptions of hell been half as compelling had there not been real-world examples to draw from? I think not.
@ 9 and 11:
I’m not sure what a “tabloid mindset” is but if it includes a preference for sculptors with something to say (Marc Quinn comes to mind, or Emily Young) then count me in. If it excludes the tiresome posturing of those such as the Chapmans with their simplistic reliance on supposed shock tactics (“Gosh, swearing – I’d better say I like this in case I’m accused of ‘not getting it’”) then I’m happy with the label. I’m also happy to point out that in fact I did see the original – I got nothing from it, I swear, other than “what a waste of time”. So please don’t accuse me of not having seen the work but do carry on accusing me of a tabloid mindset if it means what it appears to mean, i.e. a preference for art with a degree of complexity and sophistication. It is these last two factors that appear to me to be missing from the Chapman’s work - where do these boys go after they have shocked - what gives their juvenilia any depth, any substance, any of the essential ambiguity of truly great art? I guess, at a push, they could argue that they have something to say about that hoary old cliché, the banality of evil, but that in itself is a dead end.
@9 and 11
9 ... yes they made it by hand, from model kits. however the whole piece is a re-working of bosch style visions of hell with a "modern" feel. seeing it in person is immaterial, i find most of their work offensive and derivative and shock will always be schlock in the art world
11 ... i would argue that their art apeals to the tabloid mind-set
but thats art! and it's groovy if you love this. i don't
:)
I like the Chapmans work.I met Dino at party once and we swapped trainers and t shirts,had a smoke and laugh.normal kinda punter.I'm sure his heart pumps purple piss at all your comments !
When was the last time you cut up an actual GOYA and put it in yer "dioramas" !?