GILBERT & GEORGE IN LONDON TAKEOVER

Gilbert & George, an eccentric duo even by the standards of the London art world, establish the ultimate vision of a dark, murky, sort-of-foggy London. As the ghostly reporters of the ghastliest news stories to hit the capital in the past years, with the London Pictures they have created a body of work which should electrically shock even the most cynical of us. The London Pictures provide the means for entering a reality separate yet reflective of our own. I may never have known anyone involved in a “100 FOOT DEATH PLUNGE” or been present at a “MAYFAIR NIGHTCLUB STABBINGS” but whatever, they happen. They happen all the time, even though we pay little attention to them, reading about them in the rush of the grimy Tube or wherever, they just pass us by, unnoticed. This is the different world which Gilbert & George, impartial heralds, have carefully collated and which we can now see in impeccable crispness, despite the tenebrous subject matter. Humour is everywhere, if only because some of the headlines are absurd to the extreme. The Queen features prominently – imagine a stamp image of the Queen with the word “THIEVES” or “STABBINGS” floating above her head. Who knows if this is meant to be some sort of true political statement about the monarchy in a country where monarchic ideals are still so heavily ingrained or simply taken as a joke. The whole thing is in some ways a big joke; the show has opened in four galleries at the same time (one of these in Hong Kong) and, being perhaps a prime example of the commercial nature of the art world, you might feel predisposed to hate it. I urge you to rethink that initial gut feeling and immerse yourself in Gilbert & George’s mad London – they will certainly make a killing. So what? They deserve it.