Contemporary art is often blamed for being too easy on the eye and easy on the mind, in a sense that what if often does to the audience is that it SHOCKS. Shock being an instrument to reach the viewer and transfer the artist's message to his astonished public.
Quite often contemporary art entertains the public, better than the Paris Disneyland does. In Disney it is the eery "Hollywood Tower Hotel" that brings adrenaline all the way down to your toes; nowadays an art gallery can encourage the synthesis of the stress hormone with an equal success.
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| Jake or Dinos Chapman, White Cube, July 2011http://www.independent.co.uk |
Surprise, amusement and even disgust - these are the kind of feelings quite often evoked by l'art contemporain. Shock is a fast and effective way to penetrate the brain of a viewer - not always kind, and almost never elegant.
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| Jake or Dinos Chapman, White Cube, July2011 http://www.eastnews.pl/ |
YBA, in general, and a new Chapman Brothers' show in the White Cube, in particular, is clearly a vivid illustration of a thought above.In the latter Jay Jopling reveals unhesitantly why contemporary art exhibition is called a show: "Jake or Dinos Chapman" is a SHOW where the first thing I encountered on entering the gallery was an indignant looking 35-year old woman who was dragging out her daughter and telling her with outrage, nearly bursting into tears: "Honey, don't look, it is horrible!!!"
(see Jake Chapman in Hoxton if you are not that sensitive).
