The 60th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition opened on the weekend, with the major project by Queensland artist Archie Moore and QAGOMA curator Ellie Buttrose awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. The first work by an Australian artist to receive the prestigious accolade, Moore’s kith and kin was acknowledged by the jury ‘for its strong aesthetic, its lyricism and its invocation of a shared loss of an occluded past.

The artwork, in Venice’s Australia Pavilion, immerses the viewer in personal and universal stories that situate Australia’s short two-and-a-half centuries of colonisation alongside the sweeping 65 millennia of Aboriginal occupation and heritage.

Archie Moore ‘kith and kin’ 2024

Archie Moore & Ellie Buttrose with ‘kith and kin’ 2024

Australia Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2024

Today, the phrase ‘kith and kin’ simply means ‘friends and family’, but an Old English definition of kith — dating from the 1300s — originally meant ‘countrymen’, while other interpretations have taken kith to mean ‘one’s native land’. Many Indigenous Australians see the land and other living things as part of their kinship system — the land itself can be a mentor, teacher, or parent to a child. Regarding the earlier definition of the word ‘kith’, Moore has said: ‘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’.

On receiving this award, Archie Moore said:

‘As the water flows through the canals of Venice to the lagoon, then to the Adriatic Sea, it then travels to the oceans and to the rest of the world — enveloping the continent of Australia — connecting us all here on Earth. Aboriginal kinship systems include all living things from the environment in a larger network of relatedness, the land itself can be a mentor or a parent to a child. We are all one and share a responsibility of care to all living things now and into the future.

I am very grateful for this accolade; it makes me feel honoured to be rewarded for the hard work one does. I am grateful to everyone who has always been part of my journey — from my kith to my kin — to my Creative Australia team and everyone else back home and those of the Venice lagoon.’

Ellie Buttrose said that Moore’s work profoundly affected those who listen, enfolding all of us into his family.

‘To be kin is to carry responsibilities; duties for each other and all living things throughout time. This commendation is a celebration of Archie’s generosity — it is an honour to witness his art,’ she said.

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines called kith and kin a spectacular and moving installation that resonates with the weight of history and ancestry.

‘In its seemingly impossible endeavour to map a personal genealogy through more than two thousand generations — beginning with an unaffected “Me” — Moore summons up an extraordinary image of human connection through deep time. A memorial to remembering, kith and kin has that rare power to still you into silence and reflection. Queensland should be incredibly proud that this work occupies the Australia Pavilion at the world’s most prestigious contemporary art event,’ Mr Saines said.

Archie Moore ‘kith and kin’ (details) 2024

Acknowledgment of Country
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Gallery stands in Brisbane. We pay respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past and present and, in the spirit of reconciliation, acknowledge the immense creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country. It is customary in many Indigenous communities not to mention the name or reproduce photographs of the deceased. All such mentions and photographs are with permission, however, care and discretion should be exercised.

Featured image: Archie Moore with kith and kin 2024, Australia Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024 / © Archie Moore / Courtesy: Archie Moore and The Commercial, Sydney / Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

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