Essay Database

Stylisation and artifice are the trademarks of contemporary Australian artist Tracey Moffatt's work, regardless of whether working in film, video, or photography. She is never engaged primarily with producing reality, with taking pictures, but with making pictures and creating her own reality. The worlds that Moffatt constructs, usually via a form of non-linear narrative, typically combine personal memories within a larger historical experience. Thus, although most of her key works are rooted in childhood experience …

…If the subjects of her video display a contradictory combination of preening, posing and strutting, Moffatt's responses, in turn, are no less conflicting: humorous, taunting, and guaranteed to antagonize. Tracey Moffat is now arguably Australia's most well-known and avant-garde contemporary artist. Her work in film, video and photography are selling internationally and gaining global critical acclaim for their stylised approach and criticisms of many aspects of contemporary Australian society, including issues of gender and racism.