Gilbert & George

A video by Gilbert and George was shown to us as part of week 3. A lot of their work portrayed themselves, exposing themselves to an extent of self-humiliation. 

Gilbert & George's early work 

I think with the image above they were trying to create a statement of shock. These words are commonly used in verbal abuse and are not an appropriate form of language to the majority of people. However, Gilbert and George knowing this I think decided to incorporate these images of 'dirty' words into their work to create this element of shock and in a way a distraction for people to then look at the images.



" we want to be completely outside with - whatyoucall - hooligans and tramps "

Gilbert & George's early work 

Kenneth Tynan said 'fuck' on BBC in 1965 which I think triggered off Gilbert and George to then put words like that into their work because of the response and publicity of it, they wanted the lime light also. They were trying to show the reality of life and to stop us from 'sleepwalking' in our own perfect world when really it wasn't. The way they presented the images in a gallery also at such large scale and close together was so that we would flash across the images and they would then imprint into our brains and have an effect on them. 

Gilbert & George's early work - Four knights  1980

I found this image a lot easier to look at. I think they were trying to get us to match up the coloured heads across the top with the images below them. The boys body language is informal and so not matching up to the title of the work. Maybe wanting to create this to show a contrast between them and the title.

Gallery of Gilbert and George's work

Sources 


Gilbert and George's Dirty Words Pictures. Serpentine Gallery | The Guardian 2011. Gilbert and George's Dirty Words Pictures. Serpentine Gallery | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/jun/11/artsfeatures.gilbertandgeorge. [Accessed 19th October 2011] 


Google Images. 2011. Google Images. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.google.com/imghp. [Accessed 19th October 2011] 


Gilbert and George. G G. 2007. Gilbert & George Major Exhibition TATE MODERN . 1st ed. Milbank, London: Tate publishing