Katerina Gregos
October – 30 November 2001.
Tracey
Moffatt’s work has always possessed a distinctly humanist element, a
capacity to chart emotional terrain and explore the depths of the human
psyche. Most of her work has been anthropocentric, and this recent body, a
series entitled Fourth, also possesses a narrative that centres around human
beings and their confrontation with traumatic or compromising situations.
Fourth is comprised of twenty-six small, intimate photographs, printed on
canvas and taken directly from the television set during coverage of the
2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Each work is an emotionally charged portrait of
those athletes who finished fourth in the competition. Moffatt chose to
investigate the psychological parameters of having come close to winning;
the tragedy of coming within a stone’s throw of one’s goal and in the end
not succeeding. In this way, she gives centre stage to athletes whose
otherwise not inconsiderable achievement would normally be overlooked by
media and public alike, simply because they did not make it to the top. The
result is a subtle and highly revealing portrait of a complex set of
reactions and emotions which are permeated by a sense of pathos but do not
lapse into vacuous melodrama, sensationalism or overstatement. What is
interesting here is the precision of the moment captured. Athletics is
normally about action, but Moffatt chooses to focus on reaction, that moment
of realisation which lies somewhere in the area between belief and disbelief
– before frustration, devastation, resignation or sadness sinks in. In these
images each athlete’s nationality, race and gender seem to dissolve, and
what surfaces is not their symbolic status but the reality of their personal
drama.
What is also interesting here is the fact that these works possess a highly
painterly quality, and an aura of the ‘unique’, which not only emphasises
the individuality of each piece, but also that of the person depicted.
Moffatt conflates the boundaries of painting and photography, so that one is
not quite sure which of the two dominate her practice. In addition, her
photo-tableaux possess all the insightfulness of good portraiture; they are
rich in expressive detail and able to capture an aspect of the person’s
inner self. The artist also skilfully engenders in the viewer a genuine
sense of empathy – what she captures are very real, familiar emotions that
anyone could identify with. As well as being about the competitive, and
often relentless, unforgiving nature of professional sport, this work also
functions on a metaphorical level by pinpointing and exposing the obsession
with success, and the desire for the limelight. Moffatt thus challenges the
importance attached to victory that drives not only competitive events, but
also life in general. Her work resonates with a simple truth: what matters
is neither winning nor losing, but the small heroisms of everyday life.
Tracey Moffatt: Fourth was at the Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens, 16