馬特•科里索

馬特•科里索1966年生於英格蘭諾丁漢,就讀倫敦金匠學院,現在倫敦居住和工作。

科里索以其攝影和錄像裝置最為人注目。作品乍看美麗、誘人、感性,卻潛藏著暴力、令人不安和反感的意象,衝擊著各人內心,並探討及左右我們對影像的接受程度。他使用的影像通常是從別處挪用,然後再加以數碼處理,主題着意探討藝術再現與真實存在之間的關係。

在《染病的花朵》(1996)燈箱系列中,照片影像是看起來嬌艷的花卉。初看時,觀者定會被其美艷絕倫的色彩及優美形態所吸引,這都是基於花朵本身的自然形態,再以技術提升其吸引力。但細看之下,卻發現原來它們並不完美,花瓣有不少地方明顯受病毒感染。作品標題亦非植物的名稱,而是導致它們外貌破損的病原—大自然中各種可怕的絕症。在這種情況下,觀眾既被吸引亦被嚇怕。作品的靈感是來自十九世紀一位紈絝子弟的故事。此人極為迷戀花朵,甚至拒絕與人來往,終日閉門不出,只與滿屋的花卉為伴。他財富越豐,花朵病害亦越厲害,就像他病態心靈的一個反照。

科里索參與了1988年展覽「凝」,展出他其中一件最為著名的作品—將某人明顯受搶傷的頭皮照片放大,然後以十五個燈箱展示。他早期參與的創意聯展還包括:「感覺:薩奇英國青年藝術家藏品」展(倫敦皇家美術學院,1997);「閃耀!倫敦新藝術」(沃爾克藝術中心,明尼阿坡里斯,1995);「現代藥物」(一號建築,倫敦,1990)。近期的個展有:「追溯」(英國電影社,倫敦,2010);「科里索,投降」(鹿腿畫廊,德國,2009)。

Mat Collishaw

Mat Collishaw was born in 1966 in Nottingham, England and studied at Goldsmiths College in London. He lives and works in London.

Collishaw is most renowned for his photographs and video installations. His work combines the beautiful, seductive and sensual with an undercurrent of unnerving violent, repulsive imagery and psychological drama, examining and distorting our attraction and repulsion to particular images. Often, images are appropriated and digitally altered, the underlying theme being the relationship between representation and reality.

The Infectious Flowers (1996) light box series contains photographic images of particularly luscious looking flowers. On first encounter we are struck by their exquisite colours and shapes, formed by nature and enhanced by the technology of the medium. But closer inspection reveals their imperfections. The petals are not perfectly formed— areas are ravaged by, and almost pulsating with, disease. The titles identify not the exact species of flora but the cause of their disfigurement— infection by some of nature’s cruellest cancers. In this way, the viewer becomes both seduced and horrified. Collishaw was inspired by the story of a 19th century dandy who became so obsessed with flowers that he decided to lock himself away in a mansion filled with only his plants. His opulence became so much that the flowers became diseased, becoming a parallel to the sickening of his mind.

Collishaw was one of the artists to exhibit in the infamous Freeze exhibition in 1988 with one of his most well known works, that of an apparent bullet wound in the scalp of a human head blown up to an epic scale and presented over fifteen light boxes. Other early seminal group shows include Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1997; Brilliant! New Art from London, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1995 and Modern Medicine at Building One, London, 1990. His most recent solo exhibitions include Retrospectre, BFI, London, 2010 and Mat Collishaw, Submission, Haunch of Venison, Germany, 2009.