“Make it up! Make it up!” says Tracey Moffatt as we start talking about her background. “Miss Moffatt said: ‘Go ahead and make it up. Give ‘em a great story.’ ”

It may be the era of post-truth and alternative facts but I’m not ready to fictionalise the artist who will represent Australia in the 57th Venice Biennale this May. Miss Moffatt hardly needs fictionalising. She’s larger-than-life, charismatic and incredibly complicated. She talks in the most confident manner yet her public life is as guarded as her private one.