Mat Collishaw: Haunch of Venison Animal Night Life

A zoetrope - a cylindrical device that produces the illusion of action from a rapid succession of static images
Called Animal Night Life, the two-metre wide sculpture features one hundred and eighty mythological figures, including a minotaur, the Three Graces, a she-wolf and a cherub, captured in various stages of motion. As the zoetrope begins to spin, the forms of the figurines blur, before becoming magically animated by a strobe light which transforms them into coherent, moving characters. Animal Night Life represents Collishaw's reflection on the condition of looking at things. Against the eerie twilight created by the mechanized artifice of the zoetrope, the characters appear to take a perverse interest in each other while we peer curiously at them.





Thanks Alistair