Engage Winter 2017/18 | Page 15

When artist Mat Collishaw was in the process of creating his exhibition The Centrifugal Soul , he knew he needed a stunning visual centrepiece for the work .

What he decided on was Albion , a haunting ghost-like recreation of the iconic Major Oak in Sherwood forest . engage sat down with Collishaw to learn more about the project , which was created with the help of blitz by GeS .
Hi Mat , tell us about the installation it ’ s what ’ s called a ‘ Pepper ’ s Ghost ’ optical illusion , which is an old 19th-century technique generally used for theatre performances . it ’ s quite a simple means of creating a ghost on the stage . it ’ s very simple , old-fashioned and quite low tech but still quite an effective means of creating what looks like a hologram . i built a frame from metal builder ’ s scaffolding . i then suspended a large sheet of clear film diagonally inside this scaffolding frame , and projected onto the floor inside the image of this large , slowly rotating tree . When you walk into the gallery you see this transparent ghost-like tree hanging in the middle of the space ; it appears to just be floating there .
Why did you chose a tree as an image ?
The tree i used is the Major Oak , which is allegedly the tree that robin Hood used to hide in with his Merry Men in Sherwood forest . it ’ s the oldest oak in britain . because it ’ s so old , it ’ s supported by lots of metal rods to hold the branches up from the ground , and then there are chains inside the tree holding the branches up . These help keep it in its current form , if it wasn ’ t for them it would have collapsed .
Due to its significance for Sherwood Forest , the tourism industry and its mythological status as the tree where robin Hood hid it has been preserved . i scanned the tree , which gave me a lot of data , and all that data was collated into a file which was then turned into a little film . i created a video that slowly makes the tree rotate . You can just about see that the tree is moving . it rotates one revolution in 33 minutes so very , very slowly . i ’ ve made a couple of very small Pepper ’ s Ghost optical illusions before , but this was on a much bigger scale . it ’ s the biggest one that i ’ ve seen in an art gallery .
What does the name Albion represent ? it was around the time of brexit . The oak tree is the symbol of england , and some people have this idea of england that they don ’ t want to change .
The tree has been preserved in this way because people want this idea of the past preserved in the present . but the way i presented the work was that it was an illusion . Maybe that old england never really existed . That england where we didn ’ t have any immigrants and there was full employment , and everything was rosy . Maybe it ’ s just an illusion ; something that ’ s conjured up and very beguiling . i wanted to have those thoughts at the periphery and at the back of the work . As i was making it , the brexit debate was going on and i thought i could tie that in with the title of Albion , of old england .
Where did Blitz come into the picture ? i ’ ve worked with them before on a few different projects , and they are just very good . They hired and installed the projector and they ’ re very understanding about implementing what it is that you want .
Winter 2017 / 18 in association with GES engage
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