'kith and kin is a holographic map of relations which connects life and death, people and places, circular and linear time, everywhere and everywhen to a site for quiet reflection and remembrance.' archie moore

[↓] download room sheet [English, pdf]
[↓] download room sheet [Italian, pdf]
[↓] download education resource [English, pdf]

first nations peoples of australia are among the oldest continuous living cultures on earth; archie moore’s kith and kin affirms this by tracing the artist’s kamilaroi and bigambul relations over 65,000+ years. his choice of materials for this celestial map of names — fragile chalk on blackboard — addresses the insufficient dissemination of indigenous histories.

the complexity of first nations kinship systems exceeds the standard genealogical chart. archie’s extensive drawing captures the common ancestors of all humans, emphasising our kinship responsibilities to each other. words are taken from archives, newspapers and government documents, including family names, racist slurs, and gamilaraay and bigambul kinship terms — which enacts indigenous language maintenance. speculative ancestor names redress omissions in written records of oral cultures. holes occur in the lineage, signalling the severing of families through massacres, diseases and the deliberate destruction of records.

another void is the reflective pool, a memorial for first nations individuals who have died in state custody, highlighting how indigenous australians are some of the most incarcerated people globally. the volume of coronial inquests hovering above the water makes visible the vast scale of this unabated horror. names are redacted out of respect for the deceased. inquests that are not publicly accessible are represented with a blank ream of paper, expressing gaps in the record. these administrative markers of the departed are cradled by the watery reflection of the handwritten family tree, commemorating their ties to this vast web of relations.

the australian state was founded on the carceral system, with the british establishing penal colonies from 1788. archie incorporates archival records referencing his kin that evidence how laws and government policies have long been imposed upon first nations peoples.

in a kamilaroi understanding of time, past, present and future are co-present. by placing tens of thousands of years of kin on a single continuum, archie enfolds audiences within the everywhen.