Page 78 - Annual Review 2010

78 ReVeAL
tracey moffatt | australia/united states b.1960 | First jobs,
pineapple cannery 1978 (from ‘first jobs’ series) 2008 | archival
pigments on rice paper with gel medium | 62 x 84cm | gift of patrick
corrigan, am, through the queensland art gallery foundation
2010. donated through the australian government’s cultural gifts
program | collection: queensland art gallery
contemporary australian art
tracey moffatt
‘first jobs’ series 2008
tracey moffatt is one of the country’s
best known contemporary artists
both within australia and overseas.
‘first jobs’ is a visual catalogue of
moffatt’s earliest paid employment.
the money she earned from these
gruelling or tedious jobs enabled
her to travel overseas in 1979 and
supported her through her studies at
the queensland college of art in the
early 1980s.
moffatt has selected images from
period sources and substituted a
face in each photograph with her
own cheerfully smiling one. she
is now internationally successful,
having realised the dreams she might
have held as she peeled pineapples,
waited tables or packed meat. the
gap between the idealism of her
aspirations and the reality of her
struggle as an artist is reflected in the
contrast between the works’ high-key
colour and banal content.
this series was a gift of patrick
corrigan, am, through the queensland
art gallery foundation, donated
through the australian government’s
cultural gifts program.