Childhood and youth are central to the work of Australian artist Tracey Moffatt. These crucial years are often far from idyllic, but a time of hurt and trauma. Tracey Moffatt’s ten-part photographic series “Scarred for Life II” tells of everyday humiliations that can be indelibly burnt into a person’s memory: the boy who is baited because he has home-knitted sportswear (“Homemade Hand-Knit,” 1958); the sisters, punished out of all proportion to their misdemeanor, who have to cut the grass with scissors (“Scissor Cut,” 1980); the boy, small for his age, who always has to be the sheep in school plays (“Always the Sheep,” 1987 ). Most of the scenes depicted in Moffatt’s photographs relate to minor or major events at school or in the family, but they frequently also point to greater grievances in society: to injustices, to prejudices based on gender, social affiliations, skin color, or body weight.

The fact that Moffatt’s works are highly complex—never merely one-dimensional indictments—is due to their form. Each sheet has an image, a title, and a text. While the explanatory comments are extremely short and pithy, the images are filled with details that open up an entire narrative panorama. Although the photographs look almost like snapshots, they are carefully staged by Moffatt, who also often works with film. The muted colors in the photographs, and the thin, cream-colored paper create the impression that these are reproductions of the kind that were seen in illustrated magazines in the 1960s—in publications such as “LIFE” magazine in the United States. Thus the private, unspectacular nature of the scenarios contrasts with their form, which calls to mind what is now an iconic visual language from the world of publishing.

Many of the scenes in “Scarred for Life II” are based on the artist’s own experience or on tragi-comic stories told by her friends. In her photographs and films Tracey Moffatt consistently addresses gender issues, minorities, and the situation of the native peoples of Australia. She made the earlier series, “Scarred for Life I,” which explores a related theme, in 1994. But even in her very first film, “Nice Coloured Girls” (1987), Moffatt already juxtaposed the reality of life for young Aborigine women with historic images of their female ancestors’ oppression by white men. Moffatt’s discomfiting works demonstrate the power of images and the power of clichés and prejudices. They show how crucial these have been not only in the colonial history of Australia, but also in her own life, right up to the present day.

Dora Imhof

Further works by Tracey Moffatt in the Baloise art collection:

Inv. no. 0746, Invocations No. 1, 2000, Screen print on paper, 97,0 x 121,7 cm

Inv. no. 0747, Invocations No. 8, 2000, Screen print on paper, 125 x 103 cm

Inv. no. 0748, Scarred for Life II. Suicide Threat. 1982, 1999, Offset print on paper, 80 x 60 cm

Inv. no. 0750, Scarred for Life II. Door Dash. 1979, 1999, Offset print on paper, 80 x 60 cm

Inv. no. 0751, Scarred for Life II. Pantyhose Arrest. 1973, 1999, Offset print on paper, 80 x 60 cm

Inv. no. 0752, Scarred for Life II. Responsible but Dreaming. 1984, 1999, Offset print on paper, 80 x 60 cm

Inv. no. 0753, Scarred for Life II. Piss Bags. 1978, 1999, Offset print on paper, 80 x 60 cm

Inv. no. 0754, Scarred for Life II. Mother's Reply. 1976, 1999, Offset print on paper, 80 x 60 cm

Inv. no. 0755, Scarred for Life II. Brother was Mother. 1983, 1999, Offset print on paper, 80 x 60 cm

Inv. no. 0756, Scarred for Life II. Homemade Hand-knit. 1958, 1999, Offset print on paper, 80 x 60 cm

Inv. no. 0792, Fourth, No. 6, 2001, Color print on canvas, 36 x 46 cm

Inv. no. 0793, Fourth, No. 8, 2001, Color print on canvas, 36 x 46 cm

Inv. no. 0794, Fourth, No. 11, 2001, Color print on canvas, 36 x 46 cm

Inv. no. 0795, Fourth, No. 26, 2001, Color print on canvas, 36 x 46 cm

Inv. no. 0796, Fourth, No. 18, 2001, Color print on canvas, 36 x 46 cm