"Like a Dog Returns to Its Vomit" Jake and Dinos Chapman (White Cube)
I really like the Chapmans, even though they seem to be going down a more "sellable" route by making things you can hang on your wall (if you want to create an atmosphere of a pervy art therapist's office). This show addresses the artists' relationship with art history, a kind of coprophagic vomit bath by the looks of it - shitting elegantly over Goya and children's drawing books alike. What makes this more than adolescent territorial pissing is the beauty they manage to create if you take the time to look for it.
White Cube
Paul McCarthy - LaLa Land Parody Paradise (Whitechapel)
There were lots of parallels between this show and the previous one, similar abused child doodling and detourned adverts. There's obviously a link too between the misplaced phalluses on McCarthy's pirates and some of the Chapman's previous sculptures (McCarthy's one of the victims of their Oedipal urges I guess), but some of his sculptures also reminded me of Ron Mueck's incredibly detailed work. Spookiest was an animatronic sleeping pig that moved uncannily as you approached it. The massive offsite installation based on a Disneyland ride took things to another level, but although it was undoubtedly impressive, it didn't really touch me, other than making me slightly seasick.
Whitechapel
"Her Noise" Curated by Lina Dzuverovic Russell & Anne Hilde Neset (South London Gallery)
This was a sound themed show by female artists, and most of the work was interactive. I'm doing a bunch of stuff about cover versions and Karaoke, and I've always had a bit of a thing about Sonic Youth's covers, in particular their weird Ciccone Youth stuff. I could barely contain myself when I realised the Kim Gordon piece ‘Reverse Karaoke’ asked us to fuck around on some instruments while a recording of her singing was played. Even better, we got to design a sleeve and keep a copy on CD, while one was left at the gallery too.
There was also a great humming bed that you could get in (Kaffe Matthews’s ‘Sonic Bed, Menu Of Five Pleasures’). It was almost... too nice... we really had to force ourselves to leave otherwise the gallery staff would have found us there at the end of the show, with our brains melting out of our ears. Christina Kubisch had some groovy headphones that you could hear electromagnetic waves with, and Hayley Newman made an installation of plasticine models of things used in Fluxus performances.
Her Noise Link
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