A Terrible Joy

Ink and brush on tissue paper.

Wren alludes to Edmund Burke’s ideas of the sublime –the power to be thunderstruck by the magnitude of creation- luring the viewer into the landscape to be seduced by the beauty of nature with her brush and ink drawings.  Using old images from 19th-century etchings, Wren subtly introduces the human element by working on dressmaker’s patterns. The trace of the body is revealed, folded into the landscape through the use of the contour lines in the pattern pieces. In the sublime, humanity stands in the centre of the landscape to observe nature’s beauty and horror. Through the omission of the figure, Wren underscores the power of the sublime landscape.