QAGOMA unveils Archie Moore’s monumental work tracing 65,000 years of connection
QAGOMA will unveil one of the country’s most significant contemporary artworks when Kamilaroi/Bigambul artist Archie Moore’s landmark installation kith and kin opens to the public on Saturday September 27. Presented in Australia for the first time since winning the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2024 Venice Biennale, the monumental exhibition confronts history, ancestry and the continuing impacts of Australia’s colonial past on an extraordinary scale.
To present kith and kin, Archie Moore has spent several weeks hand-drawing a meticulous genealogical chart in chalk across four expansive walls, mapping more than 2400 generations and 65,000 years of connection. The extensive and powerful work traces his Kamilaroi and Bigambul ancestry alongside British and Scottish convict lineage, while also acknowledging the ties between humans, landforms, animals and waterways. By compressing tens of thousands of years into a single continuum, Archie Moore’s incredible piece draws audiences into a First Nations perspective on time.
At the centre sits a reflective pool, where a collection of coronial reports into Indigenous deaths in custody are suspended above, confronting viewers with stark realities while inviting quiet acknowledgement and remembrance.
Commissioned by Creative Australia and curated by Ellie Buttrose, QAGOMA’s curator of contemporary Australian art, kith and kin was first shown in the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale before being gifted to QAGOMA and Tate in London on behalf of the Australian Government. For its Australian premiere, a purpose-built gallery at QAGOMA mirrors the scale of the Venice Pavilion, giving audiences the chance to experience the work as it was originally conceived.
QAGOMA director Chris Saines said he was immensely proud to be presenting kith and kin, a remarkable and deeply affecting artwork, to Australian audiences.
You might like
“It’s an unimaginable endeavour to map a personal genealogy through more than two thousand generations, and kith and kin powerfully summons an extraordinary image of human connection through deep time,” Mr Saines said.
Archie Moore’s kith and kin will be presented alongside Inscribing a Life, an exhibition from QAGOMA’s collection featuring works by Hossein Valamanesh, Shirley Macnamara, Simryn Gill and Gulumbu Yunupingu.
To mark the exhibition opening on Saturday September 27, audiences can join Archie Moore at the free artist talk from 10:30 am, followed by the kith and kin panel discussion led by Larissa Behrendt AO, Cheryl Leavy and David Marr at 1:30 pm.
Visit the QAGOMA website for more information.
This article was written in partnership with our good friends at QAGOMA.