Lip

Lip is the first work in the Montages series created by Tracey Moffatt with editor Gary Hillberg between 1999 and 2015. The works are meant to be “hymns to cinema”. 
The video collage weaves together scenes from Hollywood films in which the stereotypical and discriminatory portrayal of black women becomes evident. These are represented as housekeepers, cleaners or cooks in the service of wealthy white women. Moffatt deliberately reproduces the image of the black woman as an obese maid who speaks with a strong African-American accent as a way of critically question this cliché. The pointed montage of the film sequences exposes the one-dimensional view of the characters and reduces it to absurdity. The artist deliberately chooses excerpts in which the black actresses sassily and self-confidently give their white female employers “some lip”. Their sharp, often witty remarks draw attention to the power relations in the films and turn the supporting characters into the main protagonists. 
The concluding film sequences set to the tunes of Aretha Franklin’s legendary hit Think look like an emancipatory dance by black women.