Dwelling (Victorian Issue)

Archie Moore

Gertrude exhibited the first major solo presentation in Naarm Melbourne of Ngudooroo (Lamb Island), QLD based artist Archie Moore in 2022. Dwelling (Victorian Issue) was the fourth iteration of Moore’s series of large-scale architectural installations which explore the artist’s personal and transgenerational memories. Through his detailed recreation of domestic interiors – precisely brought to life with objects of both symbolic significance and banality – Moore offers viewers an immersive, emotive, and disorienting journey through both lived and speculative experiences. The exhibition considered the porosity of memory and the transience of ‘home’: how spaces of safety can become dangerous or inadequate, and the often-violent erasure of the histories of place upon which these structures are built.

Moore (b. 1970, Toowoomba, QLD. Kamilaroi/Bigambul) works across media in portrayals of self and national histories. His ongoing interests include key signifiers of identity–skin, language, smell, home, genealogy, flags–as well as the borders of intercultural understanding and misunderstanding, including the wider concerns of racism. Recent projects include Archie Moore 1970 – 2018 (2018), Griffith University Art Museum, Meanjin Brisbane, the artist’s first solo exhibition to be presented by a public institution; the major public commission United Neytions (2014–18) for the T1 International Terminal at Sydney Airport, a partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; and A Home Away From Home (Bennelong/Vera's Hut) (2016), for the 20^th Biennale of Sydney.

Moore completed his Bachelor of Visual Arts at Queensland University of Technology in 1998. He was awarded the 2018 Creative Industries Faculty Outstanding Alumni Award by Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. In 2001, he was awarded the Millennial Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship which enabled him to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Moore’s considerable exhibition history includes Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, curated by Tina Baum, at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2017); Sixth Sense, curated by Djon Mundine at NAS Galleries, Sydney (2016); Courting Blakness: Recalibrating knowledge in the Sandstone University, curated by Fiona Foley, The University of Queensland, Brisbane; My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane and Auckland Art Gallery (2013 & 2014); Mémoires Vives: Une Histoire de l’Art Aborigène, Le musée d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux (2013–2014); and Experimenta – Speak to Me, 5^th International Biennale of Media Art at RMIT Gallery, Melbourne and the University of Queensland (2013 & 2014).

Moore’s work is in the collections of the Gilbert and Tobin Collection, Sydney; Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane; Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS, Sydney; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Newcastle Region Art Gallery; the Owen and Wagner collection, North Carolina; the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane; the Slattery Collection, Sydney; the University of Queensland Art Museum; and the University of Technology, Sydney.

Moore is represented by The Commercial, Sydney.