In the past narrative has paved the road to success for some of the greatest artists in history. The works of the Old Masters play on extracts from the bible, the romanticist’s took on classical mythology while baroque depicted heavenly glory. Dinos and Jake Chapman use the narrative of a children’s tale to comment on the ongoing social changes that are taking place around us in their book ‘Bedtime Tales for Sleepless Nights II (XI)’.

Fig1: Jake and Dinos Chapman, Bedtime Tales for Sleepless Nights II (XI)

The book provides illustrations for variations of iconic Victorian cautionary tales. The rewritten endings inevitably result in the appearance of monsters or the death of the characters involved. Through this, the artists states that by doing anything that is considered socially unacceptable you convict yourself to a painful death. The artists criticise the increasingly prevalent PC social movement in which everyone is prevented from harm with extreme levels of health and safety or the removal of true freedom of speech.

The use of Victorian moral tales is very important to understanding the work due to the social status of the time. In which the health and safety of an individual was their own concern. Children’s tales of the time period reflect this notion. The work suggests not to fully revert to this state but to prevent the bubble wrapping of individuals that is currently prevalent before it becomes too extreme.

Bibliography

Jake and Dinos Chapman, Bedtime Tales for Sleepless Nights II (XI), 2012. (2012). [image] Available at: http://Bedtime Tales for Sleepless Nights II (XI) [Accessed 2 Dec. 2017].