Jake & Dinos Chapman & Tony Oursler

On February 16, for the first time in Ukraine the PinchukArtCentre opens solo exhibition “Chicken” by Djake&Dinos Chapman and "agentic iced etcetera” by the American artist Tony Oursler.

At the centre of the Chapman brothers project stands the major new installation entitled The Sum of all Evil (2013) that forms a synthesized reflection upon the central themes such as the Holocaust, violence, and death. Alongside this, the exhibition will include a number of iconic works by the Chapman brothers whose sharp subversive humour and unbridled aggression provokes controversy and questions moral contemporary taboos.

Eckhard Schneider, General Director of the PinchukArtCentre: “Jake and Dinos Chapman's work continually verges on the breaking of taboos. It can be extremely offensive in its use of black humour and subversive jokes, addressing issues of violence, war, the Holocaust, genetic manipulation and death in all their inhumanity. It seems they are always ultimately concerned with generating a moral panic. The selection of work in this case fulfils such claims in a very specific manner, in that they will be premiering a new work, Sum of All Evil, which references the Babi Yar massacres in Kiev.”

The first major solo exhibition by Tony Oursler in Eastern Europe entitled “agentic iced etcetera” combines specially produced new works, including a Ukrainian speaking installation, with some of the most iconic pieces of the artist. Themes within the exhibition include chance in everyday life, endorphin fuelled relationships, and the tendency for magical thinking to name a few. The human face and the way it simultaneously communicates and masks emotions is also a key theme in Oursler’s work.

Formally, Oursler has developed a wide-ranging use of materials such as resin, glass, fabric, steel and various found objects, which are kaleidoscopically overlaid with projection, light and sound, forming a unique embodiment of his themes. Oursler’s work invites viewers to question their relationship with mass (multi-) media and reaches from an examination of television (and its surrounding structures) to a questioning of the psychological effects of digital communication tools like mobile phones and the Internet.

Eckhard Schneider, General Director of the PinchukArtCentre: “Tony Oursler (born 1957) is one of the pioneers of the genre. For Oursler video is a medium comparable to water in its extreme fluidity, one that had remained imprisoned within television for fifty years. He has not only succeeded in liberating video from the screen, but also in developing it into video sculpture. His works are introspections on the human psyche under the influence of mass media. The majority of the work that will be on show has been created especially for the PinchukArtCentre – a dramatic labyrinth of sensations.”

The exhibition features a screening room of music-themed video. The screening includes numerous collaborations, including those with Sonic Youth, Beck, Kim Gordon, Stephen Vitiello and Glenn Branca as well as featuring Oursler’s recently released music/video collaboration with David Bowie.

The exhibitions will be open from February 16 till April 21, 2013 in the PinchukArtCentre.

Jake & Dinos Chapman “Chicken”
&
Tony Oursler "agentic iced etcetera”