David Cameron’s presence at a private view this week attracted some commotion, with the artist behind the work, Jake Chapman, claiming to have considered physically fighting the former PM.
Oh David, you just can’t seem to get the hang of this whole post-Prime Minister lark. Though a wee barney at a Mayfair gallery’s private view won’t have Greensill ramifications, I imagine it’s a still a headline Mr. Cameron would have liked to avoid.
The new show, Me, Myself and Eye, is Chapman’s first solo exhibition, and his first since he and his brother and former collaborator, Dinos, went their separate ways.
Mr. Cameron was not the only big name in attendance at Paradise Row Project’s temporary Mayfair space, for the opening of the pop-up exhibition. Other guests included artists Tracey Emin, Tim Noble and Conrad Shawcross, the writer Will Self, and the model Kate Moss.
But the presence of Cameron and his wife Samantha was where Chapman drew the line.
“When I saw them I was so shocked,” he told The Art Newspaper. “I asked him, what the fuck are you doing here? It’s no good for you, and it’s no good for me.”
Chapman claims to have received only “mumbles” in response from Cameron, before considering forcibly removing the former Prime Minister. He didn’t act on it, however, noting “[Cameron] had a hefty-looking, unblinking ex-military man with him, so I thought getting him in a headlock would probably hurt me more than him.”
I’m hardly a fan of Cameron, but maybe just don’t attack a bloke you disagree with, regardless of the size of their security?
Anyhow, the works on show featured some of the Chapman brother’s typical smiley-faces, this time with words such as ‘Extinction’ and ‘Annihilation’ on them.
That Cameron appeared at an exhibition of this subject matter also annoyed Chapman. “To get him out of the gallery because I felt he shouldn’t be in there was actually the wrong way round,” he said. “[The art] was like a Venus – or should I say Penis – fly trap that only further confirmed how useless and inept he is.
“How stupid could he be to stand next a banners saying ‘Extinction and Annihilation’ without noticing the collision between him and the work? So we didn’t need to kick him out, the work was actually doing the work, and it was working well!”
Chapman took to Instagram to express his views on Cameron, labelling him a ‘c**t’. Instagram decided they didn’t like this, so Chapman re-uploaded an image of Instagram’s removal, with the text ‘He’s still a c**t.’
View this post on Instagram
It all seems a bit ridiculous this. And I reckon, as annoyed as Chapman purportedly is about Cameron’s presence, he’s happier about this story than anyone. Enjoy your 15 minutes, earned by claiming to have thought about attacking an ex-politician, and then a bit of Instagram posturing. If you want to have a word with him, go for it, but don’t go and be billy big-bollocks after the fact.
