Photo Story
Archie Moore’s monumental installation, kith and kin, for the Australian pavilion at this year’s Venice Art Biennale, has been awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. It is a recognition well-earned. This multi-layered, profound installation more than fulfills the 60th Venice Art Biennale theme of “Foreigners Everywhere.” It does so with a poignancy, depth, and nuance that are increasingly rare in contemporary mega installations engaging with heavily charged subject matter, such as the history of Australian First Nations. kith and Kin confronts colonial legacies head-on while embracing humanity’s shared lineage. It serves as both a memorial to pain and loss and an understated reminder of our common ancestry.
At the heart of Archie Moore’s installation is a gigantic genealogical tree tracing 65000 years of the artist’s Kamilaro, Bigambol, British, and Scottish ancestry, stretching back more than 2,400 generations. This visual lineage stretches back to the artist’s forebears and the shared origins of all human beings. Words in Kamilaroi and Bigambul are scattered across the diagram, manifesting the decline in First Nations Australian languages and dialects—the number has declined from around 700 to around 160 over 250 years. Moore also enacts efforts to revive the Indigenous language using Gamilaraay (the Kamilaroi nation’s language) and Bigambul kinship terms. The empty spaces—voids—indicate a loss, with absences pointing to massacres, diseases, and displacement that tore families apart. The charts are densely hand-drawn in white chalk on black walls and ceiling, integrating the artist’s genealogy with the history of those who lived on the continent since the beginning of Homo sapiens’ arrival.
The experience of the work is spatial. In the dimness, visitors approach the wall of names only to realize the scale of the composition. Each small rectangular cell holds an ancestor’s name, connected to the next—an intricate network. From afar, it is an organic pattern. Up close, it becomes an intimate story. The letters materialize like constellations, hovering ancestral spirits, DNA codes, or ancient glyphs awaiting deciphering. The semi-darkness envelops the viewer, suspending them in the space where the past, present, and future exist simultaneously, intertwined and influencing one another.
At the center of the space stands a contrasting image. Over 500 stacks of starkly lit documents are suspended above a reflective pool. These papers represent the bureaucratic aftermath of lives—archival coroners’ reports on Indigenous deaths in police custody. They are cold records of tragedy, methodically cataloged. Their sharp, geometric lines oppose the organic, flowing forms of the chalk-drawn genealogies. This juxtaposition feels deliberate: the statistical void surrounding these lives is systemic, contrasting with the human warmth and continuity suggested by the drawings.
It seems that Australia’s First Nations peoples are statistically among the most incarcerated populations on the planet, according to IWGIA (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs)—they form 3.8% of Australia’s population and account for 33% of the prison population, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. And yet, Moore’s installation refuses to offer only despair or victimhood. The family tree diagrams, reflected in the water below, insist that we are bound together—kin.
One final effect deepens the contemplation. As the door occasionally opens, light momentarily floods the space, revealing genealogical sagas traced high above. This illumination, though brief—like a sudden flash of insight—recedes, returning the viewer to darkness. It is a fleeting moment of clarity but a powerful one. The question remains whether its resonance will endure beyond the confines of the space. Hopefully, we carry its afterimage with us as we depart, a reminder that lingers, challenging us not to forget. We desperately need this reminder.
‘kith and kin is a memorial dedicated to every living thing that has ever lived, it is a space for quiet reflection on the past, the present and the future’
– Archie Moore
All Photos by Matteo de Mayda. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
Pavilion of AUSTRALIA, kith and kin, 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Ellie Buttrose.