Apocalyptic | Disturbing | Relentless | Unforgiving

I'm sorry - I don't know what to say about this artwork. I've picked at it for the week, since going to the Art Gallery of South Australia and running into it last weekend. It's...Well, It's odd, confronting, brutal, comical, powerful, disgusting and somewhat difficult to look away from...I found it to be in person anyway. How can something so disturbing to me also be so captivating? I don't know, but it was.

I used the image above as the main - I wanted to give you a chance to leave this blog before you go any further as some may find these images distasteful. I do, and yet at the gallery last Saturday I stood and studied it trying to pick out all its nuances and messages which, of course, I was unable to do. So you've been warned. This art is not for everyone.

It has been created by Jake and Dinos Chapman, two brothers from Britain, in 2011. They call this piece Das swings unt roundabouts fur der kinder? Ja? Nein! Schweinhund! (Swings and roundabouts for the children? Yes? No! Pigface!)

It was purchased by the Art Galery of South Australia in 2016 for just under one million dollars and sits displayed within its glass case somewhat misleadingly amongst other more traditional artworks.

At first glance I thought it was a simple depiction of an apocalyptic world but on closer inspection the horror sank in, it began to unravel as some kind of parody of a Nazi Concentration Camp in which tiny figures play out an apocalyptic scene. Nazi's, some mutated with multiple appendages, or mutilated, skeletal figures and bizarrely even McDonalds characters playing on a littered playground in some kind of Juxtaposition between the corruption and evil that were the Nazi's and their death camps, and the Corporate evil of corporations...It's all here and more.

Violence seems to be the main theme. I was left with a death factory feel here, as if the concentration camp was a processing plant where clothed Nazi's were brought, stripped and forced into the labour of processing yet more Nazi's until their ultimate death. Where experiments were carried out upon them, and their death was brought about in brutal production-line methods. Not dissimilar to the death camps of World War Two.

I'm sorry but I'm having difficulty in describing the piece. It really has to be seen to be believed. I spent almost an hour studying the work and at the end was no closer to understanding it.

Possibly it's best to show a few images for now and leave you to find your own way through this gruesome work, this despicable, disturbing creation that probably says more about human nature than any words I can create.

Herded into the camp - Skeleton Nazi's driving uniformed ones to the death machine, reminiscent of the Death camps of World War Two and the way "undesirables" were similarly treated.

Ushered into the factory, the Nazi's battered and bleeding from their treatment from the Nazi-skeletons.

Factory workers keeping the production line moving.

The bloody results. It's amazing how the artists actually capture facial expressions - Anger, sadness, madness, happiness...Right throughout the piece it is prevalent which I believe is one of the most fascinating and confrinting aspects of it.

The other side of the factory where the "product" makes its way out into the yard.

It's grotesque, amazingly detailed and sends powerful messages - Just what they are depends on the observer. Whilst I was there a father came over with his young son who seemed excited at the little figures. Once the father realised what he was looking at he pulled his son away quickly in disgust...It's like that though; You will either look, or hurry away, and hope you're not haunted by the visions. I believe it's the incredible detail the artists put into the piece that makes it so...It's...relentless. A non-stop assault on the senses, the heart and soul of a person, or so I found it...And yet I stayed. Observed some more.

As I sit putting this post together I wonder what you may think of this piece, the artwork, and if you could do a better job than I at making sense of it. Does it repulse you, do you judge the artist...Do you judge me for blogging it? I'll not know unless you reply so feel free to do so.

Below is perhaps one of the most perplexing parts of this depressing apocalypse. It may be difficult to make out but there's a bunch of McDonald's characters playing in a heavily littered playground. Multiple Ronald McDonald's - I hate clowns in the first place but here, in this piece...Damn! Freaks me out a bit. There's so much imagery in the piece that it's difficult to make it all out. What is clear though is that the artists have invested a massive amount of time in this work and obviously had a very strong idea of what they wanted to portray.

I said above that this piece is relentless - It truly is. It reaches right inside and twists. Just when you think it's going to let up you step around and see something from a different angle and that hand grabs your heart and crushes it again. It's unforgiving.

This artwork is one of the most intriguing and disturbing pieces I have ever seen - Considering I've spent time in some of the most famous art galleries around the world I think that's saying something. As a war history [history in general] lover I have seen human brutality played out before me many times but this...It's something else. I think it's the detail, the human expressions the figures show, that makes it feel a little more impactful. It's direct, brutally honest and unapologetic. It's only 2.15m high x 1.27m square in size, not massive but not small. The artists ensure that there's plenty to occupy the observer though, if they care to look.

Again, I am sorry for not really having the words to explain what I see and feel here very well. If you want to see this piece in real life you'll have to come to Adelaide. If you're from out of town I'll even pay your entry to the gallery for you - OK, it's free to get in, but look me up, I'll hang out with you, buy you a coffee afterwards, so we can discuss this interesting and brutal artwork. For now though, you'll have to make do with a few of my images and find yourself either disgusted or intrigued.

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Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default

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