Tracey Moffatt is an aboriginal artist known for her photo narrative creations. They are often highly staged as in her new work for the Australian pavilion. My Horizon is about human journeys and histories with elements of fiction. It is comprised of two photo series, Passage, and Body Remembers, and two video installations The White Ghost Sailed In and Vigil. The first photo series Passage is staged in a foggy port where a Mother and baby, a police man and a mysterious middleman act as the main characters. The scenes could be from the 1940s era. The location is unclear and so could effectively take place anywhere. There are scenes where the characters meet in dark alleyways by the harbor. In an interview Moffatt talked of the Christmas Island boat wreck where in 2010 a boat carrying asylum seekers sank off the coast of Australia as an inspiration for this work. While a clear narrative remains allusive, Moffatt says that the baby boy is either sold for passage or rescued from being sold. The series could be viewed as taking place in the past, but is applicable for all times, including the present where people across cultures have attempted to escape and cross borders to start new lives. The video installation Vigil harps on similar theme with a clearer story line. It depicts stills of asylum seekers in perilous boats, but the images have been modified to make the individuals on the boats unrecognizable. The film then pans to stills of white movie stars from different movies from the past and present with horrified expressions as they are looking on through windows. The work points out how people may follow news stories of asylum seekers struggles with sympathy, but still remain secluded in there worlds (as they watch on from behind glass in the comfort of their home) without actually engaging and attempting to make a more active effort to help. How to deal with the refugee crises is a highly debated issue in Australia. Australia is the only country in the world with a policy of mandatory detention, and offshore processing, of asylum seekers who arrive without a valid visa. Asylum seekers who arrive without a prior valid visa (by sea or air) continue to be subject to indefinite mandatory detention. As of 30 April 2017, 1,392 people were held in closed immigration detention facilities in Australia, 377 of whom were asylum seekers who had arrived by boat. (For more info… http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/publications/recent-changes-australian-refugee-policy/ ) Moffat’s Vigil and Passage work together to force one to reflect on how we think about refugees and the stories we tell about their struggles.
In the Photo series Body Remembers Moffatt herself plays a maid dressed in a 1950’s fashion posing in a ruin. The series could work as a memory, of someone returning to a place they used to work. the series has a melancholy tone. It could also be a reflection on the present or future where the place the maid works is becoming a ruin or will become one. Moffat seams to be harking to the history of exploiting Aboriginal women in domestic service jobs for white families in Australia.
The white Ghost Sailed In also reflects on the Australia’s history of colonization, The video is a view of Botany Bay made to look like an old nitrate footage and is a fictitiously found film taken by an aboriginal in 1788, the year that the first ships came to start the first European settlement. This would be the catalyst for the violent and oppressive colonization that would follow. The sounds that accompany the film are howling wind, a crying baby, and a military drum. The film creates the aura of an impeding invasion. The film serves as a reminder of past injustices to the aboriginal people in Australia.
While the works are effective at shining light on the issues of refugees and colonialism I think that they are not all effective in forcing people to think about the problems going on today, with Vigil being the exception. The white Ghosts Sailed In reflects on a historical moment that has contemporary implications, but the fact that it is historical takes attention away from the current issues that aboriginals face today and instead reminds viewers of past injustices that I am afraid could too easily therefore be dismissed and forgotten as something from the past. I think that if Moffatt’s intention with the video was to shine light on the struggles of Aboriginal communities then she should have incorporated contemporary elements. Aboriginal unemployment rates are much higher compared to the rest of the Australian population and aboriginal youth are 9 times more likely to commit suicide than non indigenous children. This is to say that there are many present day issues that, while Moffatt’s work may allude to, potentially go unacknowledged by a viewer. I think that both of the photo series could run into the same issue of potentially being interpreted as mere reflections on the past and therefore not as relevant to contemporary life.
I also understand that Moffatt’s intention for the work may not have been to make a strong political statement but her political commentary cannot be ignored and therefore I feel that there was at least some intentionally in trying to make political commentary and if this was the intention, then the works could have been stronger in addressing these contemporary issues.
This being said, I find the pavilion as a whole highly cohesive with the common theme of human journeys. Moffatt’s work is highly engaging and their narrative ambiguity does force the viewer to engage critically with the ideas in order to derive some meaning from the photo series, thus broadening thinking about the issues of asylum seekers and Aboriginals.
for more ideas on My Horizon:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/may/10/tracey-moffatt-my-horizon-australia-pavilion-venice-biennale
Refugee policies in Australia:
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/publications/recent-changes-australian-refugee-policy/
Hey William! This is a really great post! I am interested by this artist’s work, and her emphasis on what you called “journeys.” I am especially intrigued that these photo narratives focus on aboriginals and immigrants– two groups that have opposing definitions. While one group is hoping to become apart of a community that is now ruled by White colonialism, the other group hopes to reclaim the land and community that was stolen from them by White colonialists. However, I wonder if in the depiction of aboriginal women, Moffat is intentionally depicting the past, not as a way to diminish the problems that current aboriginal people face in Australia, but rather to create a sense of empathy for aboriginal people. I don’t know much about the history of immigration in Australia (past what you referenced in this article and the additional reading you provided) but I am a bit more knowledgable about immigration in the context of the United States. White colonialists taking over the home of Native American peoples was not the end of White supremacy in the United States. Still xenophobic and racist rhetoric permeates our policy and concepts of what it means to be an “American.” Those who currently spew racist sentiments about wanting to rid the country of undocumented citizens, have forgotten their ancestors’ immigrant origins. On the other hand, it is not often that I consider what it was like when the first colonial settlers came to the United States. I wonder if Native Americans wish for an America that is free of the White settlers– a past time, when from their perspective, America was great. In that sense, I can see Moffat’s depiction of the aboriginal woman as set in the past, is a way of asking ourselves who we (people under the influence of white colonialism) consider to be the “other.” If we acknowledge that we other those we consider immigrants and asylum seekers, then we are forced to acknowledge that our origins are that of asylum seekers and immigrants. We are forced to consider that our pasts are riddled by the very thing that now we fear and shut out. Perhaps the aboriginal woman is a reference to the past, a time when White colonialists did not rule the land, when White colonialists did not have the power to continue to exclude those they consider the other. I liked that you encapsulated her work by calling it a reflection on journeys. Moffat’s work (and really your blog post) are forcing me to consider what it means to be an insider or an outsider, and what it means to make a home-a place of refuge, safety and comfort- and who is continually disallowed to find this safety.
Now I gotta see the piece you are talking about in person!
Hey Daisy thank you for your thoughtful response. I really like what you are saying about the potential for Moffatt’s work to transport the viewer to the perspective of the other. I think this adds a lot to the potential interpretation. It makes me think that her photo series “Passage” that harks to the past could work to imagine a fiction in where things went differently. The ambiguity in the series leaves it open to imagine a different narrative to the one’s we are used to, potentially flipping our notions of who is an outsider and changing our conceptions of the narratives we have used to talk about asylum seekers. In regards to your comment about the aboriginal women as a reference to a time before colonialists, I find this difficult to see given that she is dressed as a maid. However, your idea about imagining a time before colonialists is rely compelling in regards to her video “The white ghost sailed In” because it is suppose to depict the landscape as seen by an aboriginal person living in 1788. So if the viewer puts themselves in the aboriginals shoes they would be watching as an other(colonists) approaches. This really helps highlight your ideas about having to confront the fact that at one time We (the non-indigenous viewer) where Asylum seekers ourselves. I think this also helps highlight how well all of these pieces work together in the exhibition because, as you mentioned, they all give the viewer insight into different perspectives of people who are “outsiders” vs “Insiders” causing us to question these notions. Thanks again for your insight
I have always been impressed by Tracy Moffat’s work. I think she achieves a strong social statement, but she does it in surprising ways. She is subtle, and brings in images/meanings that are not overtly political, and yet it adds up to a strong social statement. I think this is something that we need– political or socially motivated art that is not always so pedantic and sensational or strident. There is a place for that kind of work too, but work like Moffat’s makes you stretch rather that mostly just react.
This article might give context.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2016/apr/02/dont-tell-me-to-get-over-a-colonialism-that-is-still-being-implemented-today
Thanks for sharing the article . The article seams to be a strong call for people to take notice and care about aboriginals. I think Moffatt’s work is a very different approach then the article in trying to engage our attention and make us think critically. It makes me question which mode is most successful? For instance the article works well at grabbing people’s attention but in some ways it can only be taken at face value. We as readers our presented with facts and opinions and the reading doesn’t require much engagement beyond digesting the information. Moffatt’s work on the other hand requires a more active engagement to understand the issues she is commenting on. I think in some ways being required to work through her pieces in order to find a meaning or narrative makes them more impactful on the viewer. The potential downside to this is that a viewer who doesn’t want to engage deeply with the works may miss out on some of the political commentary that they can make. In other words this type of viewer might be more impacted by reading the article for instance. All this is to say that I agree with the notion that a combination of both strongly political and more subtle art is great.