There cannot be
anything more miserable in the life of a parent than rainy Sunday morning. On
any other day I would take my offspring for a lovely walk in a park or have
some fun on a swing in the playground, but this idyll falls apart on a rainy
Sunday morning, because by definition it is Museum of Childhood day (if you
live in Bethnal Green that is). All kids love a bit of socializing, either in
the form of ferocious battles over a toy, punching, screaming or completely
ignoring each other, while desperate parents try hopelessly to control the
situation.
Imagine my surprise,
when one of these Sundays I discovered that my ‘favourite bad weather hideout’
hosts Jake and Dinos Chapman show… “Chapman brothers?? In the Museum of
Childhood??” – my parental-conscious half shouted, trying to prevent my son
from running towards the prints (when, at the same time, my art-loving half was
trying to outrun him to be the first to see) – “How on earth the notorious
fanny-and-penis-drawing art deviants got to exhibit in this cozy, family-friendly
museum?”
My Giant Colouring Book is a series of 21 etchings, which use the
join-the-dots pages from the kid’s books to form imagery far removed from its
intended guideline. This child-friendly version of Chapman brothers’ art is
maybe not as porn and gore saturated, as we tend to know it from their other
works, yet still it is a very dark fantasy filled with all kinds of gloomy
monsters, far from Disney characters. Although this twisted imagery might be
faintly disturbing for an adult, I bet it can give fair amount of nightmares to
any kid with at least a bit of imagination. So if your child wets the bed at
night after the Gruffalo story, maybe My
Giant Colouring Book show is not the best idea for the weekend family trip.
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