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Creators

Tracey Moffatt’s Venice Biennale Show Tackles Global Issues with Personal Stories

She's heading up the Australian pavilion, but Moffatt's work resonates with an international audience.

The 57th Venice Biennale opened this past weekend and Sydney-based artist Tracey Moffatt is representing the Australian pavilion. Her new body of work, which consists of photographs and short films, is inspired by 1940s film noir, poetry, and the refugee crisis. Entitled My Horizon, the show is an imaginary romp through unchartered territory that deals with the horizon of leaving or arriving at a place.

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Moffatt, who has been pushing the limits of art photography for over 25 years, takes everything we think know about the form and reimagines it entirely through a fictional lens. She doesn't disclose the location of where her pictures are shot, nor the names of her models. The only thing we know is the plot she has created. "My imagination was flared from the complete boredom of growing up in the suburbs," says at the press preview. "I storyboard my photos like a film director."

The look she is going for is not location-specific. "My photos have an 'anywhere' look," says Moffatt. "I work in Australia but I want the work to be anywhere."

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