When Indigenous Australian artist Archie Moore made history at the 2024 La Biennale de Venezia, aka the Venice Biennale, in April by winning the event’s coveted Golden Lion for Best National Participation, he also did Brisbane’s major art galleries proud. When the First Nations talent earned Australia the top gong at the Olympics of the art world for the first time ever, he did so with an exhibition curated by Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art’s Ellie Buttrose, and with a date with the Brisbane sites as part of their 2025–26 program.
kith and kin will open in South Brisbane in August 2025 — and it’s also being gifted to QAGOMA permanently. The Australian Government has just announced that it has acquired the work to give it to the Brisbane art institution, as well as the UK’s Tate, its acquisition partner.
Accordingly, gallery visitors both in Australian and the United Kingdom will be able to explore kith and kin after its current Venice run. In Italy, the work is on display until Sunday, November 24, 2024.
“I am so grateful for this generous donation that enables kith and kin to be seen both here in Australia and overseas, in the near and distant future,” said Moore of the news.
“Encountering Archie Moore’s kith and kin at the Venice Biennale was a spectacular and moving experience that resonated with the weight of history and ancestry. In its unimaginable endeavour to map a personal genealogy through more than 2000 generations, Moore has summoned up an extraordinary image of human connection through deep time,” added Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art Director Chris Saines.
“kith and kin has that rare power to still you into silence and reflection. 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.”
kith and kin didn’t just make history with its Venice Biennale accolade. A hand-drawn genealogical chart that spans back 65,000 years, the piece also chronicles it.
Both a personal and a political work, kith and kin steps through Moore’s Kamilaroi, Bigambul, British and Scottish heritage across the installation’s five-metre-high, 60-metre-long black walls. More than 2400 generations are covered. The exhibition uses chalk on blackboard, with a reflective pool sitting in the middle of the room and 500-plus document stacks suspended above it.
Every aspect of kith and kin makes a statement. With its size and scale, it speaks to Australia’s Indigenous peoples being among the world’s longest-continuous living cultures. The use of black is also designed to look like a celestial map, and therefore nod to the resting place of First Nations ancestors. Highlighting the decrease in Indigenous Australian languages and dialects since colonisation, the fragility that stems from not being able to pass down knowledge and injustices such as deaths in custody are all also part of the work — with the aforementioned piles of paper primarily from coronial inquests.
“The phrase ‘kith and kin’ now simply means ‘friends and family’. However, an earlier Old English definition that dates from the 1300s shows kith originally had the added meanings of ‘countrymen’ and also ‘one’s native land’, with kin meaning ‘family members’,” notes Moore’s explanation of the work.
“Many Indigenous Australians, especially those who grew up on Country, know the land and other living things as part of their kinship systems — the land itself can be a mentor, teacher, parent to a child. The sense of belonging involves everyone and everything, and for First Nations peoples of Australia, like most Indigenous cultures, is deeply rooted in our sacred landscapes from birth until death.”
“I was interested in the phrase as it aptly describes the artwork in the pavilion, but I was also interested in the Old English meaning of the words, as it feels more like a First Nations understanding of attachment to place, people and time.”
kith and kin will display at Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place, South Brisbane, from August 2025. We’ll update you with more details when they’re announced.
kith and kin is on display at the Australia Pavilion, Giardini di Castello, 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, until Sunday, November 24, 2024 — head to the exhibition website for further details.
Images: Archie Moore / kith and kin 2024 / Australia Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024 / Photographer Andrea Rossetti / © the artist / Images courtesy of the artist and The Commercial.