Dimensions: image: 228 x 78 mm
Copyright: © Jake and Dinos Chapman | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Jake Chapman’s etching, "Exquisite Corpse" from the Tate collection. It's quite disturbing, with this monstrous figure holding severed heads and rooted in the ground. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Chapman, known for pushing boundaries, presents us with a potent symbol of societal decay. The monstrous figure can be seen as an embodiment of corrupted power structures, drawing from historical anxieties surrounding monstrosity and the abject. Consider its relationship to the history of grotesque imagery and its role in critiquing contemporary politics. What effect does the "rooted" aspect have on your interpretation? Editor: It feels like it can't be removed, like these awful ideologies are stuck in place. Thank you for pointing out the historical anxieties; I hadn’t considered that! Curator: Exactly! Art provides ways of seeing these histories and ways of becoming unstuck.
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This series of prints is based on a game called Exquisite Corpse, a version of Consequences which was developed by the Surrealists. The players take turns to draw part of a body onto a piece of paper, which has been folded horizontally to hide what the other players have drawn. The result is a body of composite parts. These etchings feature comic-horror imagery typical of the Chapmans’ work: skulls, eyeballs on stalks, grotesque animal heads, liquids dripping and spurting from wounds, orifices, nipples and heads, writhing intestines, and claw-like hands and feet. Gallery label, September 2004
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