Accession Code: WU1016 Title: Thicket Date completed: 2015 Classification: Prints Medium: Digital Pigment Print Height (mm): 710 Width (mm): 920 Depth (mm): Inscription: Location Name: The Oculus Location Description: Teaching Room Location Floor: 0

© Courtesy of the artist

This work is from a series of interiors called 'Tableau Vivant'. The technique that Moxhay used to produce the work was inspired by the matte painting technique used in the film industry. In matte painting the live action is filmed as normal however the background is provided by scenes painted on glass panes. The technique makes it possible to provide back drops where it would not be financially viable or physically possible to film.

For example matte painting was famously used in Dorothy’s approach to the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz. In the case of Suzanne Moxhay's work a series of small glass panels are arranged at a short distance apart, upon which she places her chosen images before photographing the whole. Hundreds of fragments can be used in a single work and consequently her output is limited to only 6 or 7 of these photographs per year.

The photographs provide a version of reality which when scrutinised begins to fall apart. There are clues left where the focus or quality of the image changes in an unusual way. Elements float. Emphasis is placed on light that can't possibly be provided by the light sources in the photograph. The result is a fairytale reality as seen in Thicket where Suzanne’s interest in romantic landscape and the sublime is evident. At the same time her interest in bringing the outside in results in spaces where nature takes over the built environment, where trees can become the central focus of a room and the physical building begins to fall away.