Tracey Moffat – Scorpio

In this series, Australian photographer Tracey Moffat dresses up as a number of famous females Scorpios, which is her own horoscope sign, including among others Hillary Clinton, Bibi Anderssen, Vivian Leigh and Bjork.

“Like all artists, we make art to see if we can do it. I think that’s why I did this, to see if I could do it, if I could become all these women”

While Moffat conceals her face in many of the pictures, it is remarkable how well she resembles he subjects. Moffat manages these transformations through Photoshop and various costumes – I’m assuming many trips to the charity shop. And as she is concealing her face the majority of the time she is relying on gesture and copying the subjects body language.

The project works well when viewed I conjunction with Moffat’s series “Being” which serves as 2^nd part to “Scorpio”. This series shows the contact sheets of the transformation process and selection for the base images that were then photoshopped to the final images of “Scorpio”. There is a nice juxtaposition here as they are rather mundane whereas the final images of Scorpio are quite flamboyant.

Reference

Roslynoxley9.com.au. (2018). Tracey Moffatt – Being – Under the Sign of Scorpio, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 2005 – Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery. [online] Available at: http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/26/Tracey_Moffatt/385/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2018].

Roslynoxley9.com.au. (2018). Tracey Moffatt – Under the Sign of Scorpio, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 2005 – Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery. [online] Available at: http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/26/Tracey_Moffatt/380/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2018].

The Sydney Morning Herald. (2018). The secret lives of Tracey Moffatt. [online] Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/the-secret-lives-of-tracey-moffatt-20050730-gdls0e.html [Accessed 8 Oct. 2018].