All of the pieces are things he’s sourced on eBay. Architectural salvage. Things that he’s found in skips. Found items. They range in height from two feet to eleven. Looking at them, these assembled relics, they seem almost sympathetic to the filmmaker Paradjanov’s work, for whom Matt Collishaw has been commissioned by the BFI Gallery to ‘respond to’. It forms part of the 2010 festival of his work and legacy. A season of Paradjanov films in the BFI Southbank cinemas complements the show.

It’s easy to see why Collishaw was chosen to bedfellow Paradjanov. They both share a perceptive understanding of the mechanics of beauty, which they both exploit in their art – combining diverse cultural elements, employing a sensual use of colour, and a shared love of nature. Probably the most obvious parallel is the use of framing. Paradjanov used a lot of frames in his films. He used framing devises, made little collages and ramshackle shrine-like artworks. In Collishaw’s BFI commission, video footage shines from within antique furniture, picture frames. The frames, shrine and doors, all made of wood, are sporadically littered with windows, in every window a two-way surveillance mirror has been placed, a series of different images projected onto these mirrors. In effect it is one wall of windows. Collishaw particularly likes the contrast between the old ‘dead’ element of the wood, and the reanimation of them by projecting modern technology into them.

“It’s basically Paradjanov for the channel hopping generation; with images changing all the time so you can never been bored,” Collishaw tells Ponystep before it’s unveiling, the images featured – a goat having its throat cut, a sheep and chicken having their heads cut off – selected early on in the commission’s process.

 “It is very hard,” Collishaw says, “Very much so,” chewing the notion. I’ve asked him about the task of conveying the spirit of another person whilst trying to do something that is honest to yourself. “But I looked for elements of his work that are also themes that I deal with anyway.” Which means using the old furniture, bric-a-brac, and using footage of themes of elemental forces. Though, however, there is no connection in this latest piece to his most famous macabre and gothic fairytale images. No element of the supernatural. More a series dealing with the elements – fire, water. Also animals: sheep, goats, horses. And forces of nature: lightning bolts, thunder. “I didn’t set out to pay homage to him, but it’s a work of my own which alludes to his work.”

His own work is certainly evident, amongst the allusions to Paradjanov there are constant reminders of the familiar and ever-present battle of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ that often crop up in Collishaw's pieces – this time with a time lapse video of a white poppy budding and flowering, a white dove fluttering by, an eagle killing a rabbit and ripping its head off - though Collishaw likes to steer clear of that kind of terminology. “The world contains all kinds of dark matter and it would be very odd to leave this out of an artwork which is supposed to reflect the world we live in.” Does he think you need the threat of violence or unjust to appreciate the good and beautiful? “Yes.” “Yes,” he says. “All the elements are out there – the good, the bad, the beautiful the ugly, cruel, kind. I think it’s logical to respect that.”

Often admitting to making the most of attention-seeking tactics, it makes you wonder - after previous exhibits containing pictures of people, half-naked, crying as they walk away from the barrel of a gun, pornography and crucifixion, separately and together, his best known work being Bullet Hole, a close-up photo of what appears to be a bullet hole wound in the scalp a person's head - what new tactics he is resorting to with this commission. “Seduction,” Collishaw concedes, “the same seduction as channel hopping on TV, an idle seduction. It’s a similar experience as going into Currys with a bank of 20 TVs all showing a different channel; you are caught up in an endless stream of information that keeps your eyes moving around.”



 
Mat Collishaw: Retrospectre runs at the BFI Gallery, BFI Southbank, 26 February – 9 May. 

www.bfi.org.uk/gallery