trompe l'œil

This series of sixteen black and white photographs is inspired by the genre of trompe l’œil. These images sometimes make reference to the iconography of seventeenth century still life painting, including the themes of the memento mori and vanitas. These motifs include, for example, hourglasses, bubbles, butterflies and ripe fruit. A further inspiration comes from the ‘cabinets of curiosity’ assembled by aristocrats such as Rudolf II of Prague in the sixteenth century. These eccentric collections included intriguing, exotic or perplexing objects exhibited together without rhyme or reason. These trompe l'œil photographs seamlessly mix three dimensional objects with reproductions of paintings and fabricated niches.