Tracey Moffatt’s photographic series Up In The Sky (1997) is an oblique narrative of race, class, and violence set in an archetypal Australian town. Across 25 ‘frames’, the staged scenes in sepia and black and white recall any number of epic dramas—from the apocalyptic to the prosaic—albeit set in the dusty streets of Broken Hill with a local cast.
Working predominantly in photography and film, Moffatt is known as a wholly original visual storyteller whose works draw upon the narrative and stylistic languages of cinema, television, and media culture. As with many of Moffatt’s previous and later works, Up In The Sky eludes a single narrative interpretation or resolution. Instead, the series invites multiple interpretations and encourages return viewings. In his specially commissioned essay on the series, writer, journalist, and radio broadcaster Daniel Browning writes:
To my mind, the banality of violence—ranging from the physical to the psychological, the interpersonal to the structural, whether racialised, gender-based or economic—is the subject of the series. The threat of violence is omnipresent in this place, the ‘Nowheresville’ of Moffatt’s imagination.
Despite its title, the drama upon which Up In The Sky pivots is neither speculative nor dreamlike. The thread-like storylines dangled by the artist speak to faultlines in the national character: the genesis of the nation state in banal violence, performed along multiple frontiers by psychotic boundary riders and genocidal maniacs with naming rights.
UTS has held three prints from Up In The Sky in its permanent collection since 1998.This collection display, located in the UTS Tower [Building 1], celebrates the recent generous donation of 22 prints to the UTS Art Collection, marking the completion of the series. Notably, full suites of the series are held in some of the most prestigious art collections in the world, including the Tate, London and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
About the artist
Tracey Moffatt is one of Australia’s most renowned contemporary artists, both nationally and internationally. Moffatt has held over 100 solo exhibitions of her work in Europe, the United States and Australia. Her films, including Nightcries – A Rural Tragedy (1989), and Bedevil (1993) have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the Dia Centre for the Arts in New York and the National Centre for Photography in Paris. Tracey Moffatt represented Australia at the 57th Venice Biennale, 2017 with her solo exhibition MY HORIZON in the Australian Pavilion, curated by Natalie King.
Essay
Directions
Building 1, 1/15 Broadway,
University of Technology, Sydney
Ultimo NSW 2007
Banner image: Tracey Moffatt, Up In The Sky #24, 1997. Offset print. ©Tracey Moffatt, 1997.
