Artwork
Sanctuary
Sanctuary is a print by Dan Hays. It dates from 2001 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Artist Dan Hays uses lentography to make the scene shift as you move.
This print plays with space and depth in a cool way. Artist Dan Hays uses lentography to make the scene shift as you move. It's a 2001 print held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Lentography stacks images under a plastic lens sheet. The effect makes walls or shapes seem to move. Hays ties this to his idea of the "cage"—both safe and trapping.
If you like this trick of perception, check out Hays, Dan.
Overview
“Sanctuary” is a 2001 print by Dan Hays, held in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection. The work employs lentography, a method that layers multiple images beneath a sheet of tiny lenses, producing a shifting visual field as the viewer moves. This creates an illusion of depth and motion, inviting the audience to experience the image from several perspectives.
Technique & Style
Lentography builds three‑dimensional effects by offsetting two or more photographs and covering them with a lenticular screen—a transparent plastic layer composed of minute prisms. When the observer changes position, each prism refracts light from a different underlying image, causing the scene to appear to move or change shape. Hays exploits this optical trick to destabilise the picture plane.
Subject & Meaning
Hays connects the visual ambiguity of the lenticular surface to his recurring motif of the cage, which he describes as simultaneously protective and confining. In “Sanctuary,” the mutable space suggests a boundary that both shelters and restrains, serving as a metaphor for the human condition and the tensions inherent in the creative process.
History & Provenance
Created in 2001, the print entered the Victoria and Albert Museum’s holdings shortly after its completion, where it remains part of the museum’s contemporary print collection. Its acquisition reflects the institution’s interest in experimental photographic techniques and the exploration of perception in late‑20th‑century art.
Artist & collection
Artist
Dan Hays makes print art that layers digital photos with ink and brushstrokes. His 2001 print “Sanctuary” blends sharp digital lines with soft, hand-painted color. Instead of movement labels, his work feels like a quiet…
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