The Gallery of Modern Art will present Archie Moore’s acclaimed installation kith and kin from the 27 of September 2025 to 18 October 2026 in the Marcia Sourris and James C. Sourris AM Galleries. The work, created by the Kamilaroi/Bigambul artist, expands on longstanding art-historical dialogues surrounding genealogy, memory and place through a monumental and site-specific environment. Moore’s installation comprises an expansive, chalk-drawn cosmology that maps more than 65 000 years of ancestral relationship.
Archie Moore, Kamilaroi/Bigambul peoples, Australia b.1970 / kith and kin 2024 / Australia Pavilion at Venice Biennale, 2024 / Image courtesy: Archie Moore and The Commercial, Sydney / © Archie Moore / Photograph: Andrea Rossetti /
Executed in ephemeral chalk on blackboard, the surface functions as both a pedagogical device and a critical medium which foregrounds the fragility and resilience of Aboriginal communities histories and languages. By situating human, as well as animal and botanical lineages in one singular continuum, Archie Moore mobilizes a holistic worldview that underscores reciprocal responsibilities between people and Country.
A reflective pool occupies the centre of the installation, operating as a commemorative locus within the wider visual field. This element references Aboriginal individuals who have died in police custody, positioning the artwork within broader discourses on State accountability and structural inequity. The mirrored surface, which captures the surrounding network of inscribed names, symbolically reconnects the deceased to larger kinship matrix.
The installation also foregrounds a Kamilaroi conception of time within which past, present and future coexist. By condensing tens of thousands of years of relational knowledge into a single spatial gesture, Moore invites viewers to inhabit a temporal framework that diverges from Western linearity. kith and kin was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the international reception of contemporary First Nations art.
Archie Moore, Kamilaroi/Bigambul peoples, Australia b.1970 / kith and kin(installation view, Australia Pavilion, Venice Biennale) 2024 / Presented to QAGOMA and Tate by Creative Australia on behalf of the Australian Government 2024 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Archie Moore / Photograph: Andrea Rossetti / Image courtesy: The artist and The Commercial, Sydney /
Gifted jointly to the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art and Tate by Creative Australian on behalf of the Australian Government, the work’s presentation in Brisbane marks its first exhibition since its debut in Venice.
SOURCE: Queensland Art Gallery