Bio
Drawing on my interest in historical themes, beliefs and behaviours, my focal point is female identities, exploring how they are socially constructed and how history has shaped perspectives and perceptions of women. I am fascinated with invisibility, objectification, oppression, and othering and how these may affect the experience of being a woman in our world today.
My projects have showcased at The Courtauld Institute of Art, Montreal International Film Festival, The Guildhall Art Gallery, Old Truman Brewery and The Sphinx Fine Art Gallery. I Can See You was awarded Best Original Concept by Jane Austen International Film Festival and received two honourable mentions. An end of residency exhibition, That's Not My Name is now showing at Normanby Hall, Lincolnshire.
Currently, I am an Artist in Resident at Time and Tide Museum, Great Yarmouth. I am also a Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.
'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
Text
Exhibitionism: The Art of Display
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
