Artists Jake and Dinos Chapman have been defacing British pound notes to much acclaim, however, guerrilla artist D*Face is "distinctly unimpressed" as this is the hallmark of not just his name but also his own work... Independent
"and them any kind of English paper money - a fiver, a tenner, a £50 note, anything so long as it has the Queen's head on it - and they will draw on it for you. They'll give you back the note, now worth many times more than your original outlay, and with the monarch's visage defaced. "Apart from the fact that it's lazy," said Dinos Chapman, "I prefer drawing on other people's work. The scene is set, and you have to respond. It's not a wheeze, it's a very serious project. It's free art, and people don't give away art very often."
Last year the Chapmans set up a small studio at the fair and painted punters' portraits for £4,000 a time. "This is the opposite of that," said Dinos Chapman. "That was the equivalent of a posh Harley Street clinic. This is like a drop-in centre in Hackney Wick. We're reversing capitalism, just a bit." He said they would be looking with interest at the way the Frieze crowds reacted during the fair, from October 11-14: "Orderly queues have a propensity to turn into baying hordes." That certainly happened last year when the crowds cottoned on to the Chapmans' portraits.
He conceded the hint of showmanship about the project. "Most of the things we do skirt dangerously close to fairground attractions," he said. "It's not an unwelcome comparison. We're happy to drag artists off their pedestals."
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From the Guardian:
"and them any kind of English paper money - a fiver, a tenner, a £50 note, anything so long as it has the Queen's head on it - and they will draw on it for you. They'll give you back the note, now worth many times more than your original outlay, and with the monarch's visage defaced. "Apart from the fact that it's lazy," said Dinos Chapman, "I prefer drawing on other people's work. The scene is set, and you have to respond. It's not a wheeze, it's a very serious project. It's free art, and people don't give away art very often."
Last year the Chapmans set up a small studio at the fair and painted punters' portraits for £4,000 a time. "This is the opposite of that," said Dinos Chapman. "That was the equivalent of a posh Harley Street clinic. This is like a drop-in centre in Hackney Wick. We're reversing capitalism, just a bit." He said they would be looking with interest at the way the Frieze crowds reacted during the fair, from October 11-14: "Orderly queues have a propensity to turn into baying hordes." That certainly happened last year when the crowds cottoned on to the Chapmans' portraits.
He conceded the hint of showmanship about the project. "Most of the things we do skirt dangerously close to fairground attractions," he said. "It's not an unwelcome comparison. We're happy to drag artists off their pedestals."
flickr photos
and another thing defacing the Queens head is a criminal offence under the Banknotes Act 1928.
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