I would argue that incest is probably the ultimate taboo. Jake and Dinos Chapman’s work would be unfairly labelled if I were to say they solely explored incest. But the work they do produce is a highlight of twisted human vices and their sexualised sculptures of merged disfigured children reference, in my opinion, the consequences of incestuous reproduction. I believe they are shifting what society understands as an utterly horrifying family pairing onto children, onto the fruit of incestuous bearing. In effect, their association of children and sex alludes to incest. A particular sculpture, ‘Two Faced Cunt’, distastefully reminds me of the notorious Hensel twins. Abigail and Brittany Hensel are conjoined twin sisters from Minnesota. Their posture and heads uncannily mimic the sculpture’s. Unlike the real life twins, ‘Two Faced Cunt’ joins the two heads with a vagina. They are nude, have long flowing blond hair, rosy cheeks, a mutually vacant gaze and expensive trainers on their feet. Their limbs are human, their physical type is a priori Caucasian but they emanate a creepy otherness. The skin is flawless, shiny, the girls (are they even gender specific at all?) have no nipples and apart from the misplaced vagina, they have no sexual organ situated where it should normally be. It’s difficult to identify the work as either its own curious creature, independent of the traits it undeniably references (human identity, sexuality, children), or the sum of its traits, the unsettling image of a child’s tainted innocence.
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