Tracey Moffatt at Dia Center for the Arts, NYC

Tracey Moffatt: Free-falling
Dia Center for the Arts, New York
October 9, 1997 - June 14, 1998

Dia Center for the Arts presents an exhibition of the work of Australian photographer and filmmaker, Tracey Moffatt. This exhibition, entitled Free-falling, will be on view on the fourth floor of Dia's galleries at 548 West 22nd Street, New York City.

Free-falling includes two newly commissioned works: a suite of twenty-five photographs called Up in the Sky (1996) and a video installation, Tracey Moffatt's first in this medium. The subject of this video piece will be a surfer, a figure close to the heart of Australia's contemporary self-image. By contrast, Up in the Sky, which was shot near Broken Hill in the Outback, draws on imagery and a landscape that have long been central to the Australian mythos. In addition, the exhibition includes Guapa (Goodlooking), a series of twelve monochrome photographs loosely based on the theme of the roller derby, which Tracey Moffatt made in 1995 while on a residency at ArtPace in San Antonio, and Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (1990), her early but prophetic short film. Guapa explores the intersection of violence with eroticism as sanctioned under the umbrella of sport. Silhouetted against neutral backdrops, the carefully choreographed female contestants create formally compelling images recalling at times sculptural groupings from the art of the past: artifice is as intrinsic to this sport as it is to Tracey Moffatt's aesthetic.

Of Abori-ginal descent, Tracey Moffatt has gained increasing international attention in the past several years. In 1995 she was awarded a prize at the Kwangju Biennale in Korea, and two of her films were shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Given that she is also included in this year's Venice Biennale and Site Santa Fe exhibitions, Tracey Moffatt, who was born in 1960 in Brisbane, is among the preeminent Australian artists of her generation. Free-falling is her most substantial exhibition to date.

Major funding for this exhibition has been provided by the Lannan Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Embassy of Australia on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and The Australia Council for the Arts with an additional generous contribution by the Wolfensohn Family Foundation.

Dia Center for the Arts
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