Mat Collishaw’s second solo show at Blain Southern, London, entitled “This Is Not An Exist”, is a return to the medium of oil painting. The artist known for extracting beauty from the seemingly uncomfortable continues his play of illusion in which nothing is literal. Collishaw presents his first series of oil paintings and tackles issues surrounding the current financial crisis. The result is a conflation of illusion with delusion and reality with dreams, amounting to a multi-faceted body of work, where each painting is made to look like a blown up page of a magazine, used as a cocaine wrap. Sleek caught up with the artist at the show’s opening to find out more.
Sleek: Why did you choose the financial crisis as your topic?
Mat Collishaw: I think it’s a malaise that percolates through everyone’s life at the moment, particularly in this country. It sets the tone for the time that we’re living in. It’s hard to ignore this bleak financial environment so it seemed appropriate to take it on but I thought that if I’m going to do it then I’m not going to do it directly or moralistically or [in a manner] that’s judgmental or boring in any way. The cocaine wraps were my Trojan horse to bring the idea in.
Explain the significance of the cocaine wraps.
Initially, I intended the show to look like a modernist painting show with abstract and pop-art paintings, then you get to realize that they’re are actually empty cocaine wraps, the remnants of a debauched night, the last thing that you have before you start looking into the abyss, and that naturally lends itself to the situation we are living in at the moment. We’ve binged, we spent on credit, we’re living in debt and we’ve finally got to that point where we realize there’s no more left.
What role do illusions play in your latest series of work?
I was trying to get several different levels of illusions and delusion and combine them together. For example the paintings in the first room look like modernist abstractions but they are actually classic trompe l’oeil paintings – an illusion you get involved in. Drugs – another delusion, you think you can live forever, full of self-confidence. And again, the world of fashion and advertising with the delusion people are seduced by. Finally, credit is another delusion, believing there is more money than there actually is.
Why did you decide to use oil on canvas?
I used to use them when I first came to London but I was dissuaded by the conceptual art staff at Goldsmiths College, where it was considered laughable to use any manual techniques. To go back it was always a challenge. It’s like if you’re an experimental musician, can you make a three-minute pop song that does the job? With oil on canvas can you make a painting, put it on the wall and let it do the job so it acknowledges art history and is interesting to look at? Also, before Christmas about three years ago, Damien Hirst gave me a huge easel with a big bow on it and about ten boxes full of hundreds of oil paints, brushes, palettes and white spirit. It just took me time to start thinking of a way to use them.
What message would you want people to take away from this exhibition?
A good artwork can be many things layered into one simple thing and to appreciate the play between that.
Mat Collishaw THIS IS NOT AN EXIT
Blain Southern, London
Until 30 March