After garnering international recognition for her Cannes-selected 1990 experimental film, Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy, Australian artist Tracey Moffatt has spent 20 years dissecting sex, race, and the machinations of modern celebrity. Using photography and video, she is known for her essentialist approach to narrative, appropriation of media images, and a vaguely punk sense of humor.
In Artist, a decade-old video project showing through May 2 at the Bass Museum, Moffatt takes account of the art star and herself. This Saturday, see this ten-minute montage shake off the layers of myth, misunderstanding, and mistruth that cling to contemporary artists, especially the famous ones. By collecting clips from television and movies such as Jack Nicholson's Joker defacing a bunch of Rembrandt canvases in Batman Moffatt tries to spot something recognizable in society's shattered mirror.
Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: Feb. 6. Continues through May 2, 2010