PHOTOGRAPHS; PRINTS
Moffatt, Tracey
Australia / U.S. (1960 - )
Up in the Sky 1 to 25
1997
25 offset lithographs on wove paper
28 1/4 x 40 in. each; 33 3/4 x 42 x 1 1/2 in. frame size
Gift of William and Ruth True
FA 2016.153

Tracey Moffatt made these photographs in the desert Outback of her native Australia, a place that she saw as possessing an archetypal “nowhere” quality. Comprised of scenes she staged and found within the landscape, this photographic series, which has no fixed order of presentation, creates a narrative characterized by its ambiguity. Yet, when seen through the lens of Australian society, this series can be interpreted as a story of a mixed-race love triangle, addressing contemporary socio-political concerns, and the colonial, racial history of Australia. The ominously looming nuns juxtaposed with scenes of maternal care evoke the twentieth-century policy of forced adoption of babies born to unwed mothers, and the government’s practice of taking aboriginal and mixed-race children from their families and giving them to white families, resulting in what is known as the Stolen Generations.

Moffatt, who lives between Australia and New York, approaches her work with a globalized, pop-culture-influenced view, inspired in part by magazines, comic books, film, and pulp fiction. Formally, Moffatt uses composition and lighting reminiscent of cinematography, such as that found in the work of Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose influence can be seen in the intense light and shadow in this series, as well as Moffatt’s decision to use local, untrained actors to stage these scenes.

Label copy for The Time. The Place. Contemporary Art from the Collection, November 4, 2017 to March 25, 2018.