QUT's biggest step into public art

A Brisbane girl who grew up to become the toast of New York has created the first artwork to be showcased on Australia's biggest billboard.

The Tracey Moffatt work was unveiled by Queensland Premier Peter Beattie during the launch of QUT's $60 million Creative Industries Precinct.

Technical staff from the university learnt to abseil especially for the public art project so that they can attach each artwork panel-by-panel while dangling off the side of the building.

The 45m by 9m Brisbane billboard fronts Kelvin Grove Road and is believed to be the biggest in Australia.

Moffatt has made an international name for herself as a photographer and film-maker but returned to her roots to find inspiration for "I made a camera".

Inspired by Moffatt's own youth, it shows a young Aboriginal girl rising from the Queensland dust before a tripod camera made of cardboard.

QUT's senior curatorial consultant Stephen Rainbird said Moffatt was an ideal choice as the debut feature artist on the billboard because of her international reputation as Australia's leading contemporary artist.

"Tracey Moffatt is currently the doyen of New York's art scene, which is no mean feat given the highly aggressive, cut-throat nature of the scene there," he said.

"In Australia, Moffatt is treated with the same lofty respect.

"People respond emphatically to her imagery because it connects with prominent contemporary issues and with an aspect of the Australian condition which remains contentious and largely unresolved.

"As a platform for site-specific work, the QUT billboard provides Brisbane's drive-by audience with a unique and challenging experience of the best in contemporary art ... and what better way to start than with a seminal Tracey Moffatt image".

Moffatt, who is now based in New York, is a reluctant star and shuns the media spotlight.

But although she prefers to let her work do the talking, she recently shared the inspiration for "I made a camera".

"When I was eight years old I made a camera out of a cardboard box," she told ABC TV.

"As a kid, I could never paint or draw, but I liked make-believe and fantasy - the next logical step was to photograph it."

Moffatt was born in Brisbane in 1960 and took her first snapshots at the age of 13 in the back garden of her home.

The original "I made a camera" image was commissioned for an exhibition at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art last year.

- Mechelle Webb