For an artwork all about history, Archie Moore's kith and kin has been making some history itself. In April, the installation won the prestigious Golden Lion for Australia at the 2024 Venice Biennale, the nation's first win. The federal government announced Monday it has acquired the artwork, and will give it to both the Tate in the UK and the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art.
"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," the artist said in a statement. Tracing Moore's own Aboriginal heritage over 65,000 years, as well as his British ancestry, the work is a genealogical map so vast it resembles a map of the cosmos. Each name hand-drawn on the pavilion walls in white chalk represents part of the artist's lineage, demonstrating a continuum of First Nations culture that transcends linear concepts of time.
At the centre of the installation is a reflective pool, in the middle of which sits a table stacked with documents - more than 500 piles of papers, mainly from coronial inquests into the deaths of Indigenous Australians in police custody. But how could such an artwork belong in two institutions at the same time? It's because kith and kin is actually a set of instructions, rather than a physical object, so a fresh version of the artwork is drawn each time the work is exhibited. This means it can co-exist in both the UK and in Queensland, ensuring its legacy o.