Mat Collishaw
26/10/2002 > 14/12/2003
Opening on 26/10/2002, from 7 pm to 9 pm
Renowned for his photographs and video installations, MAT COLLISHAW elaborates works that refer to society's fascination with sex, violence and certain forms of depravity. The artist uses devices creating feelings of both enchantment and disenchantment in the viewer, often by incorporating images from the media in his work that confront the spectator with the reality of his surrounding.
In his first solo exhibition in France, MAT COLLISHAW will present new works using a range of different media such as photography, painting, video, installation and mosaic. Ancient techniques mix with new technologies, while historical references meet with contemporary concerns.
Face to Kristallnacht, the attention of the visitor is immediately caught by the spellbinding sparkles coming from the black and white pictures. Senses are captured by a kaleidoscopic effect given by the light situated behind the pictures passing through multicoloured polarised lenses. But at a closer look at the images, the viewer realizes that he is confronted with the horror of the infamous "Night of Broken Glass" of November 9, 1938 when the Nazis unleashed a wave of progroms against the German Jewish community.
In Untitled (Spinning Wheel), the image which appears through the spokes of an old spinning wheel is not the one of the Sleeping Beauty of our childhood, but the one of a young woman injecting herself with heroin. The Stoned Immaculate and Ultraviolet Baby video-projections, play in a similar way with the immediate perception of the viewer and with his stereotypes, revealing the heavy weight of reality behind seducing images .
The same mecanism occurs with the mosaics which will be presented during the exhibition. Silver tears are rolling over the bewitching face of a young girl, decomposed in thirty thousand hand-painted tessels finally appear as the only clues of the resistance of reality to forms of idealisation invoked here trough one of the oldest traditional techniques.
More about MAT COLLISHAW
Created on the initiative of Claudia CARGNEL, Jean-Yves HARDY and Frédéric BUGADA, COSMIC GALERIE will open its 900 m2 exhibition space in an 17th century “Hôtel particulier” located in the Marais district.
COSMIC GALERIE will present emerging and established international artists, such as Haluk AKAKÇE, Vanessa BEECROFT, Annika LARSSON, Miltos MANETAS. The gallery will host a bookshop created in collaboration with Ofr and a specific video program by BDV, Bureau des Vidéos (Stéphanie MOISDON-TREMBLEY and Nicolas TREMBLEY). Parallel to the exhibition of MAT COLLISHAW, BDV will present videos by Michael SMITH (Famous quotes from History), 2002 and by John BOCK (Porzellan Isoschizo Küchentat des Neuroderitischen Brockenfalls im Kaffestrudelund das alles ganz Teuer, 2001).