Butterflies And Flowers

Mat Collishaw

Young British Artist (YBA) Mat Collishaw mimics the hypnotic and glossy aesthetic of advertisements and lurid news footage to create visual narratives about the dark side of image making. Combining new and traditional media, from wood sculpture to sound and video installation, Collishaw renders nightmarish horrors with a startling formal elegance, taking on subjects like death row inmates’ last meals, the blood-spattered survivors of a terrible disaster, and exquisite close-ups of squashed butterflies. For a series of photographs made in 2000, Collishaw meticulously staged scenes of Nazi couples post-suicide in their bunker rooms, the rooms richly outfitted with gilt-framed oil paintings, leather chairs, and opulent candelabra. The figures appear oddly at ease, draped over pieces of furniture in various stages of undress.