Mat Collishaw: Shrunken Heads

About the Exhibition

Mat Collishaw, who manipulates photography and video, utilized his technical expertise to create his 1998 piece Shrunken Heads.  This three-dimensional architectural model of a picturesque town center in England is the stage for a somewhat violent video projected by laser disc into the town square.  The scenario begins with a quiet night shattered when a crowd of hooligans bursts out of the pub.  A fight breaks out, a gun is fired, a woman screams from a second-floor window, and an SUV blows up.  The viewer is lured into the role of voyeur.  The work questions society’s fascination with violence and suggests the ubiquity of brutality and aggression in our culture.