Tracey Moffatt

Sexy sun kissed stereotypes adorne the walls of the Stills gallery as part of Australian artist Tracey Moffatt's kitsch, exotic environments that combine to produce the 'Adventure' series (2004). The photographic images are seemingly well conceived, and immediately appeal to the eye through the bright intense colours of the landscape that surrounds these film star like figures. But why do we keep looking? Aren't Moffatt's images little more than pastiches of 1970's comics, advertisements or posters for B-Movies? Perhaps the work runs a little deeper. Beneath the familiar mass-produced finish of it all, glimpses of reality begin to occur.

The 2003 film 'Love' sets this idea in motion through its rapid cut and paste technique that hurries you through the melodramas of love as if portrayed in a Hollywood film. Familiar scenes flash before your eyes within a sequence that runs from passionate embraces through to acts of revenge. It gives you more of an indication of what Moffatt is interested in, causing you to return to Adventure series and apply what you've learned. It becomes apparent that issues such as gender, ethnicity, power, and violence are lurking behind the sun, sea, and sand.