Exhibition Review

During our trip we visited the Walsall gallery and looked around an exhibition of work by Mat Collishaw. 



I decided to analyse one of his photographs of crushed moths, as the amount of detail and the scale of them intrigued me. I like how they made something that we see as being so insignificant into a sight to behold. The colours were also very vibrant and strong, which contrasted very well with the black background.

The photograph looked almost like it was in space, and it was like a huge ship exploding, as all of the small pieces appear to be floating away with a completely black surrounding. This helped to exaggerate its size, and made me feel very small by comparison like our positions had been switched.

Another piece of worked that i looked at was of food. shot in low key lighting and with low saturation, and also high contrast. The use of these made the food look extremely unpleasant and as if it was off or mouldy. 

The meals are recreated meals which criminals have chosen while on death row, and serve as memorials for the dead. Though instead of the usual memorial which usually includes flowers and celebrating their life, instead the memorials are made to look extremely unpleasant and almost sickening. This is most likely because it reflects Matt Collishaws opinion of the people these photographs represent.

It is like a complete opposide to his photos of the crushed moths, as the moth photos almost act like memorials but are highly saturated with colour and are printed on an epic scale. They make something that is seen as so insignifant into a significant impact on the room they're in. Instead, with the photgraphs focusing on the meals, the memorials have impact due to the lighting and low saturation, making them look depressing - as if to focus on the impact those people had on the world instead of the people themselves, therefore the depressing look to the photograph. They almost emcurage us to look down on those people, rather than up at them, which is the case with the crushed moths.