Mat Collishaw has had a thing about flowers, artistically speaking, since the 1990s, when, he says, contemporary artists weren’t really interested. His new exhibition focuses on flowers all right, but does it through unnatural means including AI, 3D printing and NFTs – the grim acronyms of modernity. If you’re after lovely botanical pictures you may be discombobulated.
What’s interesting is that Collishaw plays with the technical toolbox of the 21st century but addresses the themes and art of the past in disconcerting ways. The first two images are lovely botanical drawings – but by Albrecht Durer, 1520. Clever Collishaw has brought them to life. Durer’s Great Piece of Turf, a beautiful take on a patch of weeds, moves in an invisible virtual wind and the water below dimples and shimmers. It’s digital magic, meticulously done.
