Come and See, Serpentine Gallery | The Chapman Brothers & McDonalds

‘Is that a member of the Ku Klux Klan? Look there’s another one, and another one…’

If, like me, you don’t know much about The Chapman Brothers, you may be in for a surprise when you visit one of their exhibitions. My only encounter with their work was at the BP Walk Through British Art at Tate Britain which showcased some McDonald-esque tribal statues. So I thought their work would be, you know, whimsical. How wrong I was.

You can imagine my surprise to be greeted by KKK members at their exhibition ‘Come and See’ at Serpentine Gallery – they had apparently heard it was the last day and rushed to see the exhibition like myself. It appeared to be by the bus load too, scattered around the art gallery, examining the pieces like their fellow gallery-goers – they might have blended in had it not been for their attire.

Among the tribal statues I had seen at Tate Britain, there were some, shall we say interesting pieces of work involving McDonalds too.

Several battle grounds depicted a war between what appeared to be the Nazi against the characters from McDonalds. Yes, let’s take a minute to let that sentence fully process. Nope, still not any less weird or confusing. Like a Dungeons and Dragons player wet dream, there were hundreds of little painted figures, including the crucifixion of many Ronald McDonalds.

I’m pretty confident this will be the strangest art exhibition I will ever attend – but maybe that’s the point?

What do you think their McDonalds work is suggesting? Tell me in the comments section below.