Tracey Moffatt is one of Australia’s most famous artists. She was born on November 12, 1960, in Brisbane, Australia. Of Aboriginal descent, she was adopted by a white family when she was a child. She studied visual communications at the Queensland College of Art, where she graduated in 1982 (Tracey Moffatt). She is now based in both Sydney and New York.
The peak of her career came in the 1980s and 1990s when she staged solo photography shows and released film and video works which included experimental video, a feature film, and short films. In 1989, she staged her first solo photography show with the surreal and sensual series ‘Something More’, which reflects the endeavors of a beautiful woman looking for a better life in the city (Versloot).
Tracey Moffatt’s first short film, ‘Night Cries: A Rural tragedy,’ was released in 1990 and was officially selected to be part of the Cannes Film Festival. Her first feature film, ‘Bedevil’, was likewise shown in Cannes in 1993. Her photography masterpieces are permanently included in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Most of Tracey Moffatt’s works revolve around her Aboriginal descent, femininity, and the social inequality of gender and race. She has drawn inspiration for her works from her own experiences and the observations she made during her growing-up years. When she was a child, she was attracted to the media. She paid close attention to magazines, television, and films, carefully blending fantasy with reality. She was not only interested in fiction, but she likewise got ideas of how the world is actually and socially functioning through the evening news. Her works are not at all simple, for each conveys a deeper meaning than the image being presented. The images in her artworks yearn to be analyzed and understood in different contexts based on the person’s sentiments and background. Although a general theme usually covers photographic art, a film, or a video, all materials are subject to the interpretation of some kind which varies from one individual to another.
Tracey Moffatt’s artworks are combinations of personal desires and angst and the present social reality. She seeks to establish a personal identity as well as group identity and acceptance, away from the much-accepted norm of conformity. She aims to raise not just the rights of women but to advance the level of their purpose for existence and to be proud of their distinctiveness as women. She also aspires to break not just gender barriers but to limit the extent to which racial discrimination is being accepted and exercised. Some of her works reflect the reversal of roles where she shows that race is not a determinant of who should be at the top or who should be at the pit. Some of these works depict characters belonging to the supposedly more superior race or gender being subjected to experiences of the supposedly lower stratum players.
Most of Moffatt’s works were produced and gained recognition in the 1980s and 1990s.
These decades saw major changes in the world’s social and political climate because of important successes and downfalls. The 1980s culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall 1989. Within this decade, there were foiled assassination plots like that of the Pope and Ronald Reagan. The assassination of John Lennon in 1980 was, however, successful, and India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was killed by two bodyguards.
There were political upheavals like the massacre of students in Tiananmen Square, China, and the end of the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, which saw Corazon Aquino as the first Philippine woman president elected into office. There was a famine in Ethiopia, and a new disease was identified as AIDS or the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and in entertainment, 1982 saw the release of the movie E.T. by Steven Spielberg and the release of Michael Jackson’s best-selling album ‘Thriller’ (Rosenberg).
The decade of the 90s was a time of peace and redemption, especially in the issue of racial discrimination as African leader Nelson Mandela was freed in 1990 and the Apartheid laws or the laws of racial segregation in South Africa were repealed in 1991. Nelson Mandela was then elected as President of South Africa in 1994. The fall of the Soviet Union was another great historical event that occurred in 1991. The cold war officially ended the year after.
Panama Canal was returned to Panama, and Hong Kong was returned to China. Though peace was achieved in some parts of the world, this decade also marked the start of Operation Desert Storm because of the Persian Gulf War. In other fields, the 1990s saw the launching of the Hubble Telescope into space, the ‘Pathfinder’ sending back images of Mars, and ‘Titanic’ became the highest-grossing movie ever (Rosenberg).
Based on the historical and social events which occurred in the 1980s and the 1990s, there was generally more political and social awareness and freedom around the world. In Australia, the 1990s gave way to clamor from human rights groups for the government to apologize for an earlier government policy of placing Aboriginal children in institutions after removing them from their families or separating them from their parents. There were also moves in parliament to make up for the injustices done to indigenous or aboriginal Australians in past generations. Even in Australia, there was liberation from previously held practices of racial discrimination, as well as gender inequalities.
The works of Tracey Moffatt greatly reflect the historical and social concepts of both her personal life and the social conditions in society.
There is an intertwining of the personal or subjective and the social realms. Although her works are more often based on her life experiences or allegories of her life events, these experiences are connected to or shaped so that social reality may be imbibed in the artworks. The major themes of her art include power, feminism, love and sexuality, racial and gender discrimination, Aboriginal segregation, and even life and death. These themes mirror the social connections between and among people in society.
‘Nice Colored Girls’ was a 16-minute film by Tracey Moffat which was released in 1987. The film was based on the exploitation of Aboriginal women by white men pertaining to the encounters between colonizers and native women in the olden times. It likewise referred to the status of the female as being subordinate to the males, worsened by the fact that Aboriginal women are regarded much lower. This film was a statement of feminism and redemption for both females and Aborigines.
In the film, there is a reversal of fortune between the white man and the oppressed woman. The story focuses on the abduction of a white man by three Aboriginal women who persuaded a white man to spend money on them and encouraged him to get drunk. The woman then stole his wallet and left him. The film showed the women as being dominant over the man and that women also have the power to victimize. This is not a glorification of the crime committed, but its purpose is to deviate from the stereotypical allusion to women as always being the victims, thus, giving women the qualities of weakness and helplessness. This film turned that view around and directed social reality to the possibilities of strength, independence, and power among women. It reflected the growing force of women in society. The film tried to twist the never-ending struggle of women against oppression by showing a contradicting plot. By doing so, Moffatt encouraged critical analysis of the story and a reflection of what norms exist in society.
In 1989, Tracy Moffat released the series of nine images she called ‘Something More.’ The narrative of the series was about the adventures or misadventures of a beautiful woman who wanted something more out of her life, so she goes to the city. The settings of the photographs depicted rural Australia and Brisbane as the city where the woman wishes to go to for a better life. The photographs showed physical violence and sexual male dominance. It also portrayed sexual slavery and extreme fear in women.
These situations and experiences are alluded to as what the woman wishes to go away from. She yearns to leave a place where gender and racial inequalities are pervasive. Unfortunately, one of the photographs depicted that the woman died while treading the path towards Brisbane.
Tracey Moffat’s ‘Something More’ went deeper into the scars and damages of society brought about by colonialism and its abuses. Colonialism reflected a white male-dominated rule. ‘Something More’ also touched on the experiences of most Aboriginal women when they try to get more out of life or when they try to get out of the oppressive situations they are presently in. Like the photograph where the woman died before even embarking on her journey, most Aboriginal women often do not fulfill their goals, and their chances are thwarted even before they begin to try. Their efforts are oftentimes considered futile as successes are very seldom achieved. This idea discourages them from yearning for a better life and doing something about it.
In the same year as the release of ‘Something More,’ Moffatt released the 35mm film ‘Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy.’ The film was about the futility, desperation, and loss that an Aboriginal woman went through in the process or in her obligation of taking care of her elderly white mother (Walker). The story revolves around a middle-aged Aboriginal woman nursing her dying white stepmother. Although the relationship shows a somewhat love-hate pattern, the adopted daughter’s attitude towards her duty seems to be that of loneliness and despair bordering on hostility. The film’s characters obviously reflect the personal life of Moffatt in that she was likewise from Aboriginal descent who was adopted by a white family. While describing part of her own personal experience, Moffatt likewise aimed to expose social reality. The film is a direct allusion to the earlier government policy of separating Aboriginal children from their own families and placing them in institutions or arranging of adoptions by white families. Aside from the taking away of Aboriginal children from their families, there were other injustices done toward indigenous Australians.
It is a manifestation of one of the ills of Australian society.
Another socially relevant work of Tracey Moffat is the series ‘Scarred for Life’ released in 1994. The series of images were about childhood stories and lost memories. Some of the images are tragic and some are funny tales.
According to Moffat, the stories behind the images are all true stories shared by friends and the images were straightforward and very ordinary in that many people were able to relate to them and relive their own experiences through the photos (Cathcart).
The photographs showed relationships between parents and their children, and the situations inside the home concerning family members. The images reflected dysfunction in the relationships, brutality and arguments.
The images are accompanied by titles which help describe and personalize the images. ‘Scarred for Life’ was a possible means of expression for the artist in her quest for identity when she was a child. Moffat was brought up in an environment where identities and cultures are mixed. It was a setting were a child can easily get confused with what identity to take as his or her own. The images shown in ‘Scarred for Life’ are real expressions of the existing social relationships at home. They are actual representations of the experiences of children then and now.
Tracey Moffatt’s film ‘Heaven’ was released in 1997. ‘Heaven’ was a documentary involving surfers and the instance when they were changing their clothes in a parking lot near a beach.
The film was shot in an amateurish way where Moffatt asked some of her friends to go along with her so they too can take footages of the surfers. In this film, Moffatt assumed the role of a voyeur. The film reflected female aggression and the desire of women. ‘Heaven’ heavily dealt with feminism and the taboo of female sexual desire. In present society, it is actually the male who is presented in the media and in art as the gender who indulges in sexual desires. It is socially accepted that men overtly express their admiration for the physical body of women, but conversely, women are deemed more conservative when it comes to sexual matters. It is somehow accepted in society that men are prone to voyeurism, but not women.
This film negates these social notions.
It reverses the situation where it is the women this time who indulges in the enjoyment of watching or looking at men’s bodies or their physical aspects. The film ‘Heaven’, though it deviates from the practices that society is used to, is still a representation of how women are repressed in terms of self-expression. The stereotype of being women, how they should behave in society and the roles that they assume are still limiting their capabilities and their right of self-expression.
Tracey Moffatt is not just an artist who is concerned with aesthetics. She is likewise an artist who has meaningful advocacies. She stresses however, that she is not an advocate of any specific group or organization, nor is she promoting a specific school of thought. She is also not a teacher and an activist, she is primarily an artist. She is an artist who renders relevance to her work.
She finds meaning and beauty in images that are conveying messages which are subject to interpretation of the viewers.
Historical basis and social reality are always reflected in the works of Tracey Moffatt. From photography to film and video creations, Moffatt gives the people, particularly her audience, images to analyze, ponder on, interpret and relate to. Her works are particularly engaging where one who looks at her art does not only appreciate the beauty or the artistic technique used in the art, but it engages the viewer in critical thinking or intellectual discourse. The viewer is made to not only appreciate but at the same time think of the message that the art work wants to convey. Tracey Moffatt values art as a venue of not just self-expression but of social relevance. This social relevance and the historical significance of her art works make them timeless pieces.
Bibliography
- Cathcart, M. (2001) Australian Artist Tracey Moffatt. [online] Arts Today. Web.
- Rosenberg, J. Timeline of the Twentieth Century: 1980-1989. [online] About.Com. Web.
- Rosenberg, J. Timeline of the Twentieth Century: 1990-1999. [online] About.Com. Web.
- Tracey Moffatt [2002]. Women Make Movies. [online] Web.
- Versloot, A. [2000] The World of Tracey Moffatt. [online] Terrace Website. Web.
- Walker, H. [1998] Tracey Moffat Free-Falling. [online] The Renaissance Society.