Tracey Moffatt

Tracey L. Moffatt AO (born 12 November 1960) is an Australian artist who primarily uses photography and video.^[1]

Born in Brisbane in 1960, she holds a degree in visual communications from the Queensland College of Art, graduating in 1982.

Her works are held in the collections of the Tate,^[2] Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,^[3] National Gallery of Australia,^[4] and Art Gallery of New South Wales.^[5]

Early works

Moffatt's first work that came to public attention was the 1989 Something more series of photographic works.^[6] Something more has been described as "iconic".^[7]

1990s

Moffatt's photographic series of works such as Pet Thang (1991) and Laudanum (1998) returned to the themes of Something More exploring mixed and sometimes obscure references to issues of sexuality, history, representation and race. Other series of images, notably Scarred for Life (1994) and Scarred for Life II (1999) again tackled these themes but which took the form of book or magazine illustrations with captions offering ironic and humorous commentaries on the images..

As her work progressed over the next decade, Moffatt began to explore narratives in more gothic settings. In Up in the Sky [1998] the artist's work again used a sequential narrative but instead of using fantasy settings, a story concerning Australia's "stolen generation" – Indigenous Australian children who were taken from their families and forcibly relocated under Government policy – was enacted and performed on location in Queensland's outback. In Invocations (2000) Moffatt used a non-specific locale for an ambiguous psychodrama which recalled Southern American fiction and fantasy films of the early 20th Century.

2000s

In 2000, Moffatt's work was amongst those by eight individual or collaborative groups of Indigenous Australian artists included in a major exhibition of Australian Indigenous art held in the prestigious Nicholas Hall at the Hermitage Museum in Russia. The exhibition received a positive reception from Russian critics, one of whom wrote:

This is an exhibition of contemporary art, not in the sense that it was done recently, but in that it is cased in the mentality, technology and philosophy of radical art of the most recent times. No one, other than the Aborigines of Australia, has succeeded in exhibiting such art at the Hermitage.^[8]

Moffatt's work since 2000 has retreated from specific locales and subject matter and become more explicitly concerned with fame and celebrity. Her series Fourth [2001] used images of sportspeople from the 2000 Summer Olympic Games coming fourth in their various competitions. Seeking to underline their outsider status, the images are treated so only the ignoble fourth place holder is highlighted.

2003 saw Moffatt named by Australian Art Collector magazine as one of the country's 50 most collectible artists.^[9]

Adventure Series [2004] is Moffatt's most unabashed fantasy series using painted backdrops, costumes and models [including the artist herself] to enact a soap opera like drama of doctors, nurses and pilots in a tropical setting. Under The Sign of Scorpio [2005] is a series 40 images in which the artist takes on the persona of famous women born – like the artist – under the zodiac sign of Scorpio. The series reiterates the artist's ongoing interests in celebrity, alternate personas and constructed realities. Moffatt's 2007 series Portraits explores the idea of 'celebrity' among people in her immediate social circle – family members, fellow artists, her dealer – through 'glamorised' renderings of their faces using computer technology, repetitive framing and bright colours.

Film and video work

Moffatt's work in film and video has included short films, experimental video and a feature film. The short films rely on the stylistic genre features of experimental cinema – usually including non-realist narrative scenarios often shot on sound stages echoing her work in still photography. Early works such as Nice Coloured Girls and Night Cries also use sound mixes that reinforce the 'fakeness' of the settings and use well-worn experimental cinema devices such as audio field recordings and low tones to provide atmosphere. Her short video works such as Artist [2000] use the cut up methodology of taking images from pre-existing sources and re-editing them into ironic commentaries on the material – Artist for example providing a commentary on the cliched role of the artist in Hollywood cinema, and her Doomed [2007] – made in collaboration with the artist Gary Hillberg – a collection of scenes of destruction from disaster movies. Her feature film Bedevil is a trio of narratives themed around spirits and hauntings.

"Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy" [1989]

Primarily concerned with a series of almost static vignettes, Night Cries reiterates many of Moffatt's visual motifs from her still photography – sets, non-acting, an evocative use of sound and music. In Night Cries Moffatt's attempts to draw ironic or romantic connotations in juxtaposition to the images and narratives, such as her use of Jimmy Little. Moffatt also makes explicit references to Australian art history, drawing parallels between Indigenous history and the recording the landscape by non-Indigenous artists by quoting artists such as Frederick McCubbin's The Pioneer. This film was selected for official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990.

• Night Cries at Women make Movies

"Bedevil" [1993]

Shown at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival,^[10] Bedevil is composed of three self-contained narratives with recurring visual motifs. In the first story Mister Chuck Moffatt uses the character of an American soldier, in the second part Choo Choo Choo Choo railway tracks connect a series of events and in the final part Lovin' the Spin I'm in a landlord who evicts a family from a house. The images were partly inspired by memories from her early life.

• Bedevil at Women Make Movies

"Heaven" [1997]

In Moffatt's film, Heaven, footage of men getting changed in a car park near a beach is collected together, the film maker taking the position of a voyeur.

• Heaven at Women Make Movies

"Lip" [1999]

In Lip, Moffatt collates clips of black servants in Hollywood movies talking back to their 'bosses', attempting to expose the attitudes to race often found in mainstream cinema.

• Lip at Women Make Movies

"Artist" [2000]

Moffatt's Artist is a collection of clips from movies and television programs that depict artists at work, at play and in the act of creation. By showing the particular bias of television and cinema to what the role of an artist apparently means to modern society, the film reflects the sometimes uninformed, sometimes humorous view of society towards artists today.

• Artist at Women Make Movies

"Revolution" (2008)

Shown at Australian art gallery in New South Wales.

Select Filmography

• Guniwaya Ngigu (1982) (documentary)
• Nice Coloured Girls (1987)
• Watch Out (1987)
• A Change of Face (1988)
• Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (1990)
• Bedevil (1993)

References