From Ha-Ha to Horror: Sanchez Bros. Q&A out today

Carlos and Jason Sanchez's work is pretty dang dark, but in person the brother-art-duo is jovial, finishing each other's sentences with quips and goofy grins. I spoke with them a few weeks ago at Nicholas Metivier Gallery, where they're having Contact-related show of works old and new. Today the National Post published our condensed Q&A. Here's an excerpt:

Q Can you talk about where some of the works in this show came from?

A Our newest image, By the Skin of His Teeth [pictured above] was based on Jeffrey Dahmer's last victim, who got away and was seen running from Dahmer's house with one handcuff on. We tried to make it reportage style, to make it look as real as possible.

The Hiroshima image is more like a postcard. The idea was to make it look as beautiful as possible--to take this horrible thing and twist it around a bit. The gas chamber at Auschwitz was also a straight shot. They have a whole department set up to accommodate photographers --you just have to shoot at night, when it's closed to visitors. So we were there around midnight.

Friendly Fire was shot in Arizona. We had seen a press clipping of Afghan soldiers standing around a big pool of blood in the desert; the caption said something like "American forces accidentally kill eight Afghan soldiers."

And The Everyday, that was inspired by the film Children of Men. There was an explosion scene in it that was just incredible--long, handheld shots, just amazing.

You can read on here about the Sanchez's first-ever feature film project (upcoming) as well as the adolescent-humor vids they made as bored Montreal-suburb teens.

Image of the Sanchez Brothers' By the Skin of His Teeth 2010 from Nicholas Metivier Gallery