Tracey Moffatt facts for kids

Tracey Moffatt AO (born 12 November 1960) is an amazing Indigenous Australian artist. She is famous for her photography and video art.

In 2017, she showed her art for Australia at a big international art show called the 57th Venice Biennale. Her special exhibition was named "My Horizon." Her artworks are kept in famous museums around the world, like the Tate in London and the National Gallery of Australia.

She lives in Sydney, Australia, and New York City.

Even though she is best known for her photos, Tracey Moffatt has also made many films, documentaries, and videos. Her art often looks at the lives of Australian Aboriginal people. She explores how they are seen and understood in society and culture.

Early Life and Learning

Tracey Moffatt was born in Brisbane in 1960. Her father was white, and her mother was Aboriginal. When she was three, she went to live with a white foster family. She grew up as the oldest of three daughters and often helped take care of her foster sisters.

Moffatt studied visual communications at the Queensland College of Art. She finished her degree in 1982. Later, in 2004, she received an honorary doctorate, which is a special award for her achievements.

In 2020, she was given an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society. This is a big honor for photographers.

Early Artworks

Tracey Moffatt's first short film was Nice Coloured Girls, made in 1985. This 16-minute film tells the story of three young Aboriginal women. They are exploring Sydney's King's Cross entertainment area. The film also shows how Indigenous women faced challenges from white men in the past. Gail Mabo acted in this film. She also danced and created the dances for another of Moffatt's short films, Watch Out.

Her famous photo series, Something More (1989), was made for the Murray Art Museum Albury. It has six bright color photos and three black-and-white ones. This series helped Moffatt become widely known. The photos tell a mysterious story of a young woman. She is looking for more from life than her difficult childhood in the countryside.

Night Cries (1989/1990) is another well-known film by Moffatt. It was inspired by an old Australian film called Jedda. Night Cries looks similar to Something More. It tells the story of an Aboriginal woman who has to care for her older white mother. The film shows the complex feelings and history between Aboriginal people and their colonizers. It reminds viewers of the challenges Aboriginal people faced in the past.

Art in the 1990s

Other photo series, like Scarred for Life (1994) and Scarred for Life II (1999), also explored these themes. These works looked like photo stories from Life magazine and had captions. The words were interesting, but they didn't fully explain the pictures. Instead, they made the images even more mysterious.

As her art developed, Moffatt started to explore stories in more dramatic settings. In Up in the Sky (1998), she used a series of photos to tell a story. This time, it was about Australia's "stolen generation." These were Indigenous Australian children who were sadly taken from their families by government policy. The story was acted out in the Queensland outback. Like Something More, Up in the Sky deals with themes of race and violence. It shows a loose story in a remote, ruined town filled with unusual characters. This is one of Moffatt's larger photo series. Its visual style was inspired by an Italian film called Accattone (1961). The story focuses on a mixed-race relationship. Moffatt said about her work: "My work is full of emotion and drama. You can get to that drama by using a narrative, and my narratives are usually very simple, but I twist it... there is a storyline, but... there isn't a traditional beginning, middle and end."

Art in the 2000s

In 2000, Tracey Moffatt's art was shown in a big exhibition of Australian Indigenous art. This show was held in the famous Nicholas Hall at the Hermitage Museum in Russia.

After 2000, Moffatt's art started to focus less on specific places and more on fame and celebrity. Her series Fourth (2001) used pictures of sportspeople from the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. These were athletes who came in fourth place in their events. Moffatt changed the images so that only the fourth-place person was highlighted. This showed their "outsider status."

In 2003, Australian Art Collector magazine named Moffatt as one of the country's 50 most collectible artists.

Adventure Series (2004) is Moffatt's most imaginative fantasy series. She used painted backgrounds, costumes, and models (including herself!) to act out a drama like a TV soap opera. It featured doctors, nurses, and pilots in a tropical place. Under The Sign of Scorpio (2005) is a series of 40 photos. In these, Moffatt pretends to be famous women who, like her, were born under the zodiac sign of Scorpio. This series shows her continued interest in celebrity, playing different roles, and creating new realities. Moffatt's 2007 series Portraits explores the idea of "celebrity" among people she knows well. These include family members, other artists, and her art dealer. She made their faces look "glamorous" using computer technology, repeated framing, and bright colors.

In 2008, Moffatt had her "first big exhibition" at the Dia Art Foundation in the United States. It featured her photo series Up in the Sky (1997).

Art in the 2010s

In 2017, Tracey Moffatt was chosen to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. Her solo exhibition was called "My Horizon," and it was put together by Natalie King. The show included two videos, The White Ghosts Sailed In and Vigil. It also had two photo series, Body Remembers and Passage. "My Horizon" explores the challenges of colonialism and how it affects Indigenous people in Australia. This was the first time since 1997 that an Indigenous artist represented Australia at this important art event.

Art in the 2020s

From May 28 to July 24, 2022, an exhibition called Land Abounds took place. It featured the work of brothers Abdul Abdullah and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, as well as video art by Moffatt. The exhibition was held at the NSW Southern Highlands gallery of Ngununggula, which means "belonging."

Film and Video Art

Tracey Moffatt's film and video work includes short films, experimental videos, and even a full-length movie. Her short films often use artistic styles from experimental cinema. They usually have stories that are not realistic and are often filmed on sound stages, similar to her still photography. Early works like Nice Coloured Girls and Night Cries also use special sound mixes. These sounds make the settings feel less real and create a certain mood. Her short video works, like Artist (2000), use a "cut up" method. This means she takes images from existing movies and TV shows and re-edits them. She uses them to make funny or thoughtful comments on the original material. For example, Artist comments on how artists are often shown in Hollywood movies. Her film Doomed (2007), made with artist Gary Hillberg, is a collection of destruction scenes from disaster movies. Her full-length movie Bedevil tells three stories about spirits and hauntings.

Bedevil (1993)

Bedevil was shown at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. It has three separate stories that share similar visual ideas. In the first story, Mister Chuck, Moffatt uses a character who is an American soldier. In the second part, Choo Choo Choo Choo, railway tracks connect a series of events. In the last part, Lovin' the Spin I'm in, a landlord forces a family out of their house. The images in the film were partly inspired by memories from her own childhood.

Heaven (1997)

Moffatt's film, Heaven, is a collection of clips. It shows men changing clothes at Australian beaches.

Lip (1999)

In Lip, Moffatt put together clips of black servants in Hollywood movies talking back to their "bosses." She wanted to show the attitudes about race that were often found in mainstream movies. This film also tells a story about two women, one white and one black, who is her maid. It shows the challenges and tensions between them.

Artist (2000)

Moffatt's Artist is a collection of clips from movies and TV shows. These clips show artists working, playing, and creating. By showing how TV and movies often portray artists, the film reflects society's sometimes funny or uninformed ideas about what an artist is today.

Revolution (2008)

This film was made for the 16th Biennale of Sydney in 2008.

See also

In Spanish: Tracey Moffatt para niños