QAGOMA and Tate Acquire Archie Moore’s ‘kith and kin’

Archie Moore b. 1970, Australia Follow +

Archie Moore‘s kith and kin (2024), which he presented at the 60th Venice Biennale, has been acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Australia and Tate in Britain.

The acquisition was supported by Creative Australia and the Australian government.

‘I am so grateful for this generous donation that enables kith and kin to be seen both in Australia and overseas, in the near and distant future,’ Moore said in a statement.

To create kith and kin, Moore used chalk on the interior walls of the pavilion to chart his ancestry stretching back 65,000 years. The mural includes absences that signal colonisation, massacre, disease, and displacement. Piles of documents—including coroners’ reports of 557 Aboriginal people who died in police or prison custody—lie on a table over a reflecting pool, a void that represents the deaths of First Nations peoples.

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said, ‘in its unimaginable endeavour to map a personal genealogy through more than 2,000 generations, Moore has summoned up an extraordinary image of human connection through deep time.’

‘We are profoundly grateful to be the joint custodians of this historic work and we look forward to showing the project, curated by QAGOMA’s Curator of Contemporary Australian Art, Ellie Buttrose, in Brisbane from August 2025.’

Buttrose curated Moore’s presentation in Venice.

Tate Director Maria Balshaw described kith and kin as ‘a powerful meditation on humanity’s interconnections stretching back into deep time.’

She said the shared acquisition builds on joint acquisitions made with the MCA in Sydney and an upcoming collaboration with the NGA in Canberra, which will bring Emily Kam Kngwarray to Tate Modern in London.

The shared acquisition is very much in keeping with Moore’s world view. When he collected the Golden Lion for Best National Participation in April, he drew attention to Aboriginal kinship systems, which include all living things.

‘We are all one and share a responsibility of care to all living things now and into the future,’ he said.Moore’s work remains on display at the Australia Pavilion through 24 November. —[O]

Main image: Archie Moore, kith and kim (2024). Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Matteo de Mayda.