Lot 104
JAKE AND DINOS CHAPMAN (BRITISH CONTEMPORARY) §
EIGHT POUNDER (INVERSE ALCHEMY), 2000
Contemporary & Post-War Art // Prints & Multiples | 706
Auction: Contemporary & Post-War Art
Description
Signed and numbered 3/10 to base, lead, with a wood & perspex purpose-built plinth
Dimensions
4.5cm (height) x 11.5cm (diameter) (1.75in x 4.5in)(not including plinth)
Provenance
Provenance: Private collection.
Footnote
Note: Known as Les Enfants Terribles of the British art scene, brothers Dinos and Jake Chapman were initially employed as assistants to Gilbert and George before finding themselves catapulted to fame as pivotal figures within the infamous Young British Artist group of the 1990s. Along with Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, they were among the most high-profile figures of the movement, certainly doing their part to contribute to its controversial reputation. Working across a range of media, but perhaps most particularly sculpture and installation, their art is consciously playful, subversive and full of contradictions. At its root they explore and interrogate contemporary issues, however this is achieved through mechanisms designed to shock, including puerile humour, sexual obscenity, and graphic violence. In Eight Pounder, we find a quintessential example of one of their grotesqueries. This work illustrates their magpie-like theft of imagery with subject matter drawn from mass media and consumerist culture, which they then elevate only to skewer through the lens of Pop Art’s knowing post-modern irony, as well as the absurdity of Dadaism.