Archie Moore (born 1970) is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

multimedia artist. His installation ''kith and kin'' was exhibited in the

Australian pavilion The Australian pavilion is a structure that houses Australia's national pavilion, national representation during the Venice Biennale arts and Venice Biennale of Architecture, architecture festivals. Although Australia has been represented at the ...

at the 2024 Venice Biennale winning the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.

Early life and education

Archie Moore was born in 1970 at

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( ), nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoom ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. He is a

Kamilaroi The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous Australians, Indi ...

Bigambul The Bigambul people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Tablelands and Border Rivers regions of New South Wales and Queensland. Name In the traditional language, the name of this group is derived from the Bigambul word or wh ...

man, with an Aboriginal mother and a father of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

descent. In 1998 he graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree from

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

(QUT) in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Art practice

Moore's work explores autobiographical themes, including exploration of his Aboriginal identity (looking at skin, language, smell, home,

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

, flags), as well as Australian history. He examines understanding and misunderstanding between cultures, and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

. He works in many media. He has created paper sculptures,

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

, and

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

, and has even worked with

perfumer A perfumer is an expert on creating perfume compositions, sometimes referred to affectionately as a ''nose'' () due to their fine sense of smell and skill in producing olfactory compositions. The perfumer is effectively an artist who is trained i ...

"to create smells that create memories", along with the more conventional forms such as painting, drawing, photography,

textiles Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

, sculpture, and site-specific installations. He also enjoys exploring

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, one of which is typically obvious, and the other often conveys a message that would be too socially unacc ...

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

s, and other linguistic dualities.

Career highlights

His 2016 installation ''A Home Away From Home (Bennelong/Vera's Hut)'', commissioned for the 20th

Biennale of Sydney The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and ...

, is a full-scale replica of the small brick hut built for

Wangal The Wangal people (; Wanngal or Won-gal) are a clan of the Dharug Aboriginal people whose heirs are custodians of the lands and waters of what is now the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, centred around the Municipality of Strathfield, ...

man Woollarawarre Bennelong in 1790 during the early years of the

colonisation of Australia 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

. Inside is a replica of his maternal grandmother Vera's home, with

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...

walls and a dirt floor. In 2021, his ''Family Tree'', a

family tree A family tree, also called a genealogy or a pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. More detailed family trees, used in medicine and social work, are known as genograms. Representations of ...

drawn on a square piece of MDF using a white

conté crayon Conté (; ), also called the Conté stick or Conté crayon, is a drawing medium composed of compressed powdered graphite or charcoal mixed with a clay base, square in cross-section. It was invented in 1795 by Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who create ...

and blackboard paint, was displayed in the solo exhibition entitled ''The Colour Line: Archie Moore &

W.E.B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relativel ...

'' at UNSW Galleries. The work includes many traditional Aboriginal names along with

anglicised Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

, derogatory, or other names assigned to

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

people. In 2022, Moore created ''Dwelling'' at Gertrude Contemporary in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. This consisted of several rooms containing memories of his childhood home.

2024 Venice Biennale

In 2024 Moore presented a solo exhibition in the

at the 2024 Venice Biennale. The presentation was curated by Ellie Buttrose, Curator of Contemporary Australian Art at the

Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art The Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, colloquially known as QAGOMA, is an art museum in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It consists of the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), which is the main building, and a second gallery, the Gall ...

. The creative partnership won the chance to represent Australia via an open call for proposals. Moore is only the second Indigenous artist to solo-represent Australia in the event, after

Tracey Moffatt Tracey Moffatt (born 12 November 1960) is an Indigenous Australian artist who primarily uses photography and video. In 2017, she represented Australia at the 57th Venice Biennale with her solo exhibition, "My Horizon". Her works are held in t ...

in 2017. His work, entitled ''August 19, 2024'', comprises another huge family tree drawn in chalk, mapping over 2,400 generations, and covering of wall space in the Australian pavilion. There are large gaps in the tree, where

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

was not passed down owing to the effects of

colonisation 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

massacres A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...

, epidemics, and natural disasters. The chart was created on the walls and ceiling of the pavilion, which are traditionally white, but now covered in blackboard paint. Completing the installation are hundreds of piles of documents arranged on a table in the centre of the room, containing official proceedings of

inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a cor ...

s into Indigenous deaths in state care since that have occurred since 1991, the year the

Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) (1987–1991), also known as the Muirhead Commission, was a Royal Commission appointed by the Australian Government in October 1987 to Federal Court judge James Henry Muirhead, t ...

report was published, as well as 19 documents relating to members of the artist's family who had come into contact with former policies. These include reports by the Queensland

Protector of Aboriginals The Australian colonies in the nineteenth century created offices involved in managing the affairs of Indigenous people in their jurisdictions. The role of Protector of Aborigines was first established in South Australia in 1836. The role becam ...

, who would not grant exemption to Moore's grandparents from the restrictive ''

Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 The ''Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897'' (Qld), was an Act of the Parliament of Queensland. It was the first instrument of separate legal control over Aboriginal peoples, and was more restrictive than any co ...

'', that controlled the movements, financial control, and the right to marry of Aboriginal people. The process of creating the family tree on the walls took two months for Moore and three collaborators to complete. He said "it was important to have this large scale

ork Ork or ORK may refer to: * Ork (folklore), a mountain demon of Tyrol folklore * ''Ork'' (video game), a 1991 game for the Amiga and Atari ST systems * Ork (''Warhammer 40,000''), a fictional species in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe * '' Ork!' ...

to give a sense of time and unbroken continuing culture even though there's these three holes in the tree, which are disruptions to the genealogical lineage". On 20 April 2024 it was announced that Moore was the winner of the Golden Lion award for Best National Participation. On August 19 2024 it was announced that ''kith and kin'' had been jointly acquired by the Australia Government for

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galle ...

and the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

in the U.K. Because of its size, ''kith and kin'' was acquired as a set of artist instructions rather than the physical installation, so it can co-exist at both Tate and Queensland Art Gallery without incurring any additional shipping, conservation, or storage costs.

Music

Moore is also lead singer in a

metal band Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed a ...

called Eggvein (rendered Σgg√e, n), adopting the stage name stage name Magnus O'Pus.

Recognition and awards

Curator, artist, and author

Djon Mundine Djon Mundine (born 1951) is an Aboriginal Australian artist, curator, activist and writer. He is a member of the Bundjalung people of northern New South Wales. He is known for having conceived the 1988 work ''Aboriginal Memorial'', on display ...

has written extensively about Moore, referring to him as a "

night parrot The night parrot (''Pezoporus occidentalis'') is a small parrot endemic to the continent of Australia. It has also been known as porcupine parrot, nocturnal ground parakeet, midnight cockatoo, solitaire, spinifex parrot and night parakeet. It i ...

", a rarely-sighted bird. * 2001: Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, enabling study at the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, Czech Republic * 2013: University of Queensland's National Artists' Self-Portrait Prize, for "Black Dog" – a

taxidermied Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the process ...

dog, blackened by shoe polish * 2018: Creative Industries Faculty Outstanding Alumni Award by QUT * 2024: Chosen to represent Australia in the 2024 Venice Biennale *2024: Winner, Golden Lion award for Best National Participation at the Venice Biennale

Selected exhibitions

*2018: ''Archie Moore: 1970-2018'', curated by Angela Goddard, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane *2021: ''The Colour Line: Archie Moore &

'', curated by José Da Silva, UNSW Galleries,

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

*2022: ''Dwelling (Victorian Issue)'', at

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Gertrude Contemporary is a contemporary art complex located in Melbourne, Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian con ...

*2022-23: ''Embodied Knowledge: Queensland Contemporary Art'', curated by Ellie Buttrose and Katina Davidson,

, Brisbane *2024: ''Dwelling (Adelaide Issue)'', an installation at the

Samstag Museum of Art The Samstag Museum of Art, also known as the Samstag Museum, was opened in October 2007 as the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, in the Hawke Building of the CityWest campus of the University of South Australia (UniSA). The museum is named in ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, 11 October 2024 - 29 November 2024; the 5th iteration of the work based on memories of his childhood bedroom, created in collaboration with filmmaker

Molly Reynolds Molly Reynolds may refer to: * Molly Reynolds (director) Molly Reynolds is an Australian producer, screenwriter and director, best known for the 2021 documentary '' My Name is Gulpilil'' about acclaimed actor and dancer David Gulpilil (1953–2021 ...

under the auspices of the

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in movie theater, cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented wikt:Special:Search/biennial, biennially in March from 2 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Archie 21st-century Australian artists Australian contemporary artists Living people 1970 births Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Australian Aboriginal artists