During my 15 year practice, I aim to create exciting stories, based in playful and vibrant worlds that seek to challenge historical and contemporary perceptions, which have shaped the experiences of being a woman today. I strive to connect, inspire and empower women of all ages, and invite them on a shared journey of discovery and reflection that highlights female power, raises aspirations and builds self-esteem.
I am committed to pushing the boundaries of my practice; embracing new platforms, such as immersive, performance and installation art; combining new digital techniques and analogue materials; and challenging the status quo, to confront our beliefs of what it is to be human.
My projects have been showcased at The Courtauld Institute of Art, the Montreal International Film Festival and The Sphinx Fine Art Gallery. My film I Can See You was awarded Best Original Concept by the Jane Austen International Film Festival and received two honourable mentions. I work with creative and culture partners on a variety of public commissions, including National Trust, Wellcome Collection and Ipswich Museums, and have resided as an artist in residence at North Lincolnshire Museum and Normanby Hall.
Currently, I am an artist-in-residence at the Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth, creating the surreal film, Gold Drunk, inspired by the British Empire, cabinets of curiosity and museum acquisitions, responding to their theme Not Made in Great Yarmouth.
I also lecture at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge on the BA (Hons) Digital Media Production course.
'Tracy calls attention to the manner to which we perform history. By translating real events into stories,
she blurs the line between truth & fiction.'
Mia Curran, Curator, Exhibitionism: The Art of Display, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House
Tracy Satchwill’s excerpts from The Life of Marie Antoinette presents fantastical episodes of whimsy and splendour. Composed of a combination of illustration, collage, photography and found objects, Satchwill’s three-dimensional toy theatres are intricately composed scenes of artifice. First invented as advertisements for playhouses, Victorian Toy Theatre quickly assumed a private role independent from the public stage. Toy theatre brought drama into the middle-class home, allowing children and adults informally to direct their own plays. Satchwill reinvents this Victorian tradition to illustrate historical narratives. Her contemporary toy theatres are frozen in time, thus removing the element of personal agency and continuous movement from the dioramas. This removal of viewer interaction is fitting for illustrating the story of Marie Antoinette, who was notorious for her obliviousness to the common man. Furthermore, the bright colours and elaborate decorations of toy theatres wittily captures the French Queens signature love of ornament and spectacle. By representing historical events as theatrical scenes, Satchwill calls attention to the manner to which we perform history. By translating real events into stories, historians blur the line between truth and fiction.
Mia Curran
Curator
Exhibitionism: The Art of Display, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House
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