As biology and technology continue on their crash collision course, so too the ethics slip and slide, trying to find a foothold amongst the relentless experimentation. Collishaw’s memento mori offer a stark warning: just because we can, should we? Beware, for human aspiration is flawed. What might all this experimentation unleash? Upon reflection, perhaps the bright light illuminating these flowers isn’t the clear, calm daylight of a halcyon 17^th century morning, but rather the harsh white light of a laboratory. Are we looking at the shiny fruits of a new Utopia, or the corrupt harbingers of Yeats’ blooddimmed tide, some rough beast slouching off to Bethlehem to be born? - Anna Wallace-Thompson, curator of Vivisystem (see the full editorial text)

For his solo exhibition at Galería Hilario Galguera Madrid (March 4 - May 10, 2025), Mat Collishaw collaborated with Factum Arte to create a series of tapestries inspired by Dutch 17th-century still life paintings, but taking shape within the term coined by Kevin Kelly 'to describe the phenomenon where machines increasingly mimic biological patterns, while human thought processes become more mechanised, creating a complex feedback loop'.

The work on translating the images into tapestry form has been especially challenging, as the level of realism and hyperrealism of the images required careful work on the Jacquard loom. Marcos Ludueña Segre, who has been working on the weave structures with Factum Arte for many years, has achieved a result that works from a distance and continues to hold attention when viewed close up.

Detail from The Uncouth Vindication, 2024 © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Arte

Detail from The Uncouth Vindication, 2024 © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Arte

Detail from The Uncouth Vindication, 2024 © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Arte

Detail from This Barbarous Grammar, 2024 © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Arte

Detail from This Barbarous Grammar, 2024 © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Arte

Detail from This Barbarous Grammar, 2024 © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Arte

Detail from Another Forbidden Treasure, 2024 © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Arte

Detail from Another Forbidden Treasure, 2024 © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Arte