A Cheat Sheet to AGNSW's Tracey Moffatt Exhibition

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Still trying to get your head around artist Tracey Moffatt's bold, brave (and sometimes obscure) legacy? The good folks at the Art Gallery of New South Wales are giving you a helping hand this winter with a free exhibition titled Tracey Moffatt: Laudanum and other works, finishing up in a mere two weeks on September 4.

As the holders of the largest collection of Tracey Moffatt pieces in Australia, the Gallery has handpicked some of the legendary Australian artist's key works for display. The selected artworks explore Moffatt's interest in melodrama and cinema through film and photography.

Laudanum (1998) and Plantation (2009), two popular works that explore fear, desire and high drama linked through the motif of colonial architecture, are on show at the exhibition alongside others. These two notable works were created more than 11 years apart. In between working on them, Moffatt was furiously productive, notably joining forces with Gary Hillberg to come up with a significant collection of video montage masterpieces including Love (2003) and Other (2009), which also feature in the exhibition. The former follows the turbulent journey from romantic love to cruelty, while the second records powerful chemistry erupting between races, sexes and genders.

You always get more out of an art exhibition if you know a little bit about the artist. So we've come up with a little cheat sheet for you to study before you go - you can be the one to explain the depth behind the exhibition to your confused friends.

Yasujiro Ozu, Tokyo Story

WHAT TO EXPECT?

There's a surreal quality to Moffatt's work which comes from her interest in Japanese and international cinema, including German Expressionism. She uses unconventional framing and camera angles - both techniques that revel in artificiality as opposed to realism. These techniques shatter a sense of realism and dimensional depth – they unhinge our perception of the world. Both German Expressionist and Japanese film often use similar techniques to disorient the viewer. If you're an avant-garde cinema buff and and know what dislocating, rhythmic film narratives are, you'll most likely enjoy this exhibition.

Tracey Moffatt, Laudanum 13 (1998) from the Laudanum series, Art Gallery of New South Wales. © Tracey Moffatt. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

SHE DOESN'T BELIEVE IN ACTING

Moffatt studied visual communication in Brisbane in the '80s, and although she pursued film, her strength and interest remained in the actual composition and framing of shots. Her film work is often viewed a four-dimensional extension of her still work. When working on films she, essentially, worked as a director of photography in the director's seat. This priority, combined with the assertion that she doesn't believe in acting, informs the most idiosyncratic characteristic of her films — a limited script with very little dialogue. The Montage films, featured in the Laudanum exhibition, are made up of found footage from mainstream cinema which are tacked together to tell a story.

In her 1999 still series Laudanum, the same economy is reflected. A series of eerie images in the exhibition tell a story about race, power and sex, relying on subtle compositional cues to convey the deep underlying themes and messages rather than explicitly laying out intent.

Moffatt doesn't spoon-feed her audience. This exhibition will force you to analyse and investigate your personal response to viewing her work, potentially seeing yourself reflected in the meaning of the film.

Tracey Moffatt, Plantation (Diptych no 2) (2009) from the Plantation series, Art Gallery of New South Wales. © Tracey Moffatt. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

SHE'S A VISUAL ARTIST, THEN A FILMMAKER

Moffatt is, at her core, a visual artist with a passion for photography, this is essentially what a lot of her film work is based around. Her films are a series of slow-moving stills and her photographs are the reverse — energetic frames, frozen in time, that hint at a deeper narrative in play on either side of the moment that tie narrative together in non-traditional ways. As narrative falls into place behind form, Moffatt's work, both film and photographic, jumps all over the place, back and forth between the past, present and future. Visual art, after all, exists mostly outside of the fourth dimension.

The choppy narrative and editing rhythm of Moffatt's feature films have been likened to other Aussie film greats, such as Picnic at Hanging Rock by Peter Weir and My Brilliant Career by Gillian Armstrong for their strong consideration of the visual elements.

Tracey Moffatt, Love (2003), Art Gallery of New South Wales. © Tracey Moffatt. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

SHE'S FASCINATED BY B-GRADE MOVIES

Over her career, Moffatt frequently references B-grade films as a huge influence on her work. It may be that, as previously pointed out, we regard realism in film as A-grade quality, but what makes a film B-grade — the trashiness, obvious emotion, garish sets, unsubtle expression — are all elements greatly enjoyed and valued by Moffatt and other non-traditional film makers. She grew up watching a broad range of cinema, from arthouse films to Hollywood blockbusters, and her broad, formative appreciation is echoed in the complex range of influence in her films. Her work hides powerful depths below superficially simple facades.

Tracey Moffatt, Laudanum 16 (1998) from the Laudanum series,Art Gallery of New South Wales. © Tracey Moffatt. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

HER WORK IS SUBTLY POLITICAL

Building on the show-not-tell theme, Moffatt addresses political issues with a subtle hand. Although her work deals with Indigenous identity and struggle, drawing on her own life experiences as an Indigenous woman and Indigenous histories, she approaches political commentary in a roundabout way. Laudanum is an opiate primarily prescribed to women in the 19th century for its relaxing, if hallucinatory, effects. The story in some photographs featured in the exhibition (a vague tale of a Caucasian master and an Asian servant) brushes upon themes of race, dominance, and sexuality but draws conclusions about none. That's the classic Moffatt style - you make up your own minds.

Tracey Moffatt's Laudanum and other works is in its final weeks. See the exhibition until September 4 at the Art Gallery of NSW. Entry is free.