Artist

Like Lip, Artist is a work in the eight-part Montages (1999–2015) by Tracey Moffatt and Gary Hillberg. In each of these works, Moffatt interweaves scenes from Hollywood films and popular media that relate to a specific theme. Artist is dedicated to the artist as a figure. 
The excerpts from cinema, television and advertising demonstrate how clichés about artists have been reproduced throughout the history of film and media. The spectrum ranges from artistic geniuses and amateur painters to iconic figures in art history, such as Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Picasso and Niki de Saint Phalle. The often dubious rules of the art market and the exhibition business are also addressed. The video work oscillates between merciless caricature and ironic (self)criticism. 
The collage-like editing technique, at times accompanied by kitschy music, leads to an absurd exaggeration. This reaches its climax in the final film sequences in which the joy of artistic creation gives way to an iconoclastic impulse.