In the Realm of the Unmentionable: The Chapman Brothers in Hastings

27 November 2014

The exhibition opening (pic: Alessandro Raho)

Provocative artists Jake and Dinos Chapman have opened a major new exhibition at the Jerwood Gallery.

In the Realm of the Unmentionable combines existing material with new works created especially for the Hastings show - including a faithful recreation of Tracey Emin's tent installation that was destroyed in a warehouse fire in 2004.

In the film below, Jake Chapman reveals the thinking behind the piece, and you can view a selection of other works from the exhibition, which was crowdfunded through The Art Fund's 'Art Happens' project.

Ahead of their In the Realm of the Unmentionable show, which opened at the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings on 25 October, Jake Chapman discusses their ‘homage’ to Emin’s Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 – which the controversial brothers have titled The Same Thing, Only Better.

Emin’s work, also known as The Tent, featured 102 appliqued names of everyone she had slept with – in the literal sense, so including family members and friends as well as sexual partners – up to the time of its creation.

It was lost when a blaze ripped through the Momart warehouse in east London in May 2004, destroying an estimated £50million worth of art, including more than 100 pieces from Charles Saatchi’s collection. Works by Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Rachel Whiteread and the Chapman brothers themselves were among the other casualties.

While assembling the piece during the filming of BBC Four’s What Do Artists Do All Day?, Chapman explains that Emin has refused to remake it herself because she was so emotionally connected to the work, and argues that by simply making an exact copy, their own recreation disinvests it of any true artistic content. The full programme will be screened on BBC Four on November 5.