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Interplay between intuitive and calculated elements is something that we have come to expect in the work of Mostyn Bramley-Moore. One had only to look behind the linen of his early paintings which exploited spontaneous gesture and rich oil paint to see the sophisticated carpentry and framing. As a child he often worked with his father, a theatrical set-maker, and he has never lost his fabrication skills or respect for the paradox of materials versus appearance.
Around 1988 Bramley-Moore's focus shifted substantially away from easel painting, to constructions which happily utilised sometimes disturbing juxtapositions of painterly and mixed media surfaces. Significantly, he began to use furniture as a vehicle of mediation between painting and sculpture. This approach has been extended in the work exhibited recently in Sydney and Brisbane.
Two of the major pieces in these shows are cabinets. Cupboard for 11, rue Larrey and Ka Cabinet can be viewed from a stool, Tidal Bench. The physicality of these, and careful installation, allowed the artist to set a scene in which he could both maintain a complex range of references and sustain a central core of ongoing thematic preoccupations. Briefly, Cupboard for 11, rue Larrey refers to the open/closed challenge of Duchamp's door sculpture of 1927, (by an ingenious use of cable and pulleys one drawer always remains open), Ka Cabinet relates to the influence of the Nile in Egyptian society and Tidal Bench was inspired by an early nineteenth century American Shaker communal dining-room bench in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through all, there is a confident and challenging use of painterly effects.
Bramley-Moore remains interested in the subjects of "water" and "night", as