Artist Suzanne Moxhay produces photomontage scenes which seem to effortlessly combine elements from both her own photography practice and her large archive of collected images. Her method was derived in part from the early film making technique of matte painting, where backdrops were painted on sheets of glass and integrated by the camera with the live-action on set.
She builds up the image in her studio using cutout fragments of source material, which she makes into small stage sets on glass panels. She then re-photographs the sets and manipulates the images digitally, an act of reprocessing which takes them further away from their original context and broadens the narrative potential. To compose her taken and collected photographs, Moxhay relies on a film technique dating back to the early 20th century called matte painting.
“In my recent work I have been exploring concepts of spatial containment in montages built from fragments of photographed and painted interiors,” says Moxhay. “Architectures are disrupted by anomalous elements – contradictory light sources, faulty perspective, paradoxes of scale. Light casts shadows in the wrong direction, walls fail to meet in corners, an area of the image can be seen either as an enclosing wall or dark overcast sky.”
