SOMETHING MORE NO 1, 1989 (FROM THE SERIES SOMETHING MORE)
Tracey Moffatt
cibachrome print on Perspex
90.0 x 119.0 cm
edition: artist's proof
Acquired directly from the artist
Private collection, Melbourne
Newton, G., Tracey Moffatt: Fever Pitch, Piper Press, Sydney, 1995, pp. 38–39 (illus. another example)
Martin, A., ‘Tracey Moffatt's Australia (A Reconnaissance)', Parkett, no.53, 1998, p. 23 (illus. another example)
Snelling, M., Tracey Moffatt, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1999, p. 55 (illus. another example)
Reinhardt, B. et al., Tracey Moffatt: Laudanum, Ostfildern, 1999, p. 10 (illus. another example)
Travis, L., 'Mirage: Drysdale and Moffatt in the Australian Outback,' Art and Australia, Fine Arts Press, Sydney, 2000, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 548–555, p. 552 (illus. another example)
Savage, P., & Strongman, L., (ed.), Tracey Moffatt, City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand, 2002, p. 17, p. 26, (illus. another example)
Perkins, H., Tradition Today: Indigenous art in Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2004, p. 87 (illus. another example)
Wallace, M., Tracey Moffatt's visual pleasures, Brought to Light II, Contemporary Australian Art 1966 – 2006 from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection, Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, 2007, p. 312 (illus. another example)
It is hard to conceive of contemporary Australian photography without the work of Tracey Moffatt, and indeed without the lush imagery of the Something More series. Originally exhibited in 1989 as part of Moffatt's first solo exhibition which was held at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, the series has since been included in numerous significant exhibitions both in Australia and abroad. As observed by curator Gael Newton 'Something More instantly established Moffatt's presence... and its surreal and exaggerated spaces became her signature style.'1
Our work, probably the best known of the series, is described by Gael Newton as a 'vision... in a lush red satin cheongsam. She is well groomed and made-up with red lipstick and nail polish. Her dress however, tells tales on our would-be glamour queen. The tattered hem shows it is second-hand. She takes a step forward, lips slightly parted, eyes raised toward some distant and uncertain goal.'2 Watched by peroxide blond that leans upon the doorjamb of a shack, the image highlights Moffatt's ability to draw aesthetic inspiration from high art as well as from mass entertainment. Firmly embedded within the narrative and stylistic language of television, film and media culture, much of her work is based on recollections from 'a whole 1960s childhood and 1970s adolescence [spent] glued to the television or with my nose in a book.'3
Yet Moffatt's work moves well beyond the retrospections of an introverted youth. Her complex fragmentations of the narrative arc leave the viewer to wonder at the unexplained 'in between' events which populate her series. The allegory presented in Something More is strangely recognisable; half memory, half apparition. As Moffatt plays to the anticipation that is generated between desire and fulfilment, between what is remembered and what is dreamt, she also provides release through the sheer beauty of her work, though 'it is a pleasure always attended by a feeling of unease'.4
1. Newton, G., Tracey Moffatt, Invocations, The Australian National University, 2001, p. 12
2. Newton, G., Tracey Moffatt: Fever Pitch, Piper Press, Sydney, 1995, pp. 15-16
3. The artist quoted in Photography, Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2007, p. 262
4. Wallace, M., Tracey Moffatt's visual pleasures, Brought to Light II, Contemporary Australian Art 1966 - 2006 from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection, Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, 2007, p. 309