Art, Cruelty and Controversy

In possibly the most infamous image that artist Mat Collishaw has created to date, an enlarged crop of thick brown hair is splayed in all directions by the scarlet wound glistening at its centre. It’s a visceral and discomfiting image at any size, but displayed over the height and breadth of 15 lightboxes, as he intended it to be, it’s arresting enough to stop anybody in their tracks.

Collishaw’s work has evolved a great deal since Bullet Hole, the striking…