Every year, Modern Art Oxford offers a five-week internship to two students at the University of Oxford. Ash Capon, a Fine Art student at Oxford, has worked with the communications team, learning valuable marketing and digital content creation skills. In this digital content commission, they reflect on the artwork in Suzanne Treister’s new exhibition: Prophetic Dreaming, at Modern Art Oxford.
After viewing the vast collection of work produced by Suzanne Treister, her botanical print series – HFT The Gardener stood out to me as a body of work. The intricate prints are collected images of real psychoactive plants which correspond to the top 20 companies in the FT Global Financial Index. I wanted to capture the level of detail in colourful watercolour illustrations, a medium also used by Suzanne Treister.
Suzanne Treister, HFT/ Botanical Prints, 2015. Copyright the Artist.
A selection of my watercolour illustrations
I added a digital element to my moving image by translating each plant into a tarot card. This idea was inspired by Suzanne Treister’s use of tarot decks in her art. Her series HEXEN 5.0 (2025) and HEXEN 2.0 (2011) each include an illustrated tarot deck. Whereas hers illustrates science and technology, each card in my tarot deck expands on the visual aspects of each botanical print. I began my process by creating a digital scan of each of my watercolours. I then inserted each one into a tarot card composition. Finally, I added backgrounds and overlays using my graphic design skills. As I was not able to illustrate a full tarot deck of 78 cards, I had to be selective of which prints to paint. I settled on 3-4 plants from 14 of her botanical print posters, of which I found the most eye-catching. This digital content piece was created out of my love for visual communication, digital collage and traditional art materials in response to Suzanne Treister’s vast collection of artwork.
You can now view HFT The Gardener and HEXEN 5.0 as part of Suzanne Treister: Prophetic Dreaming at Modern Art Oxford from 4 October 2025 to 12 April 2026.