ArtReview sent a questionnaire to artists and curators exhibiting in and curating the various national pavilions of the 2024 Venice Biennale, the responses to which will be published daily in the leadup to and during the Venice Biennale, which runs from 20 April – 24 November.
Archie Moore’s solo exhibition in the Australia Pavilion is located in the Giardini.
ArtReview What do you think of when you think of Venice?
Archie Moore I think of water and the city sinking. The films Death In Venice and Don’t Look Now, both horror films in a way, with death and decay, with the city being a major character. When I walk around Venice I notice some of the locations and feel like I am back in a film.
I think of the fact that it was founded by refugees and built on 10 000 000 tree trunks, which is a massive amount of land clearing and makes me wonder what was destroyed and lost where they felled the trees. This resonates with me because so much of Australia was cleared during colonisation in a way that drastically altered the landscape.
And, of course, I think of the Biennale.
AR What can you tell us about your exhibition plans for Venice?
AM It will be a large immersive installation that spans millennia, which includes me, you and everyone who has lived and died on Earth. I am collaborating with a Torres Strait Islander architect, Kevin O’Brien, and curator Ellie Buttrose from my home city, Brisbane, to respond to the space of the pavilion and to my conceptual ideas. We are leaving the window partially open to view the canal outside as a reminder of where the viewer currently is and to think about how that water is connected to everywhere on the planet – to my home continent of Australia. A sense of place and belonging to that place is important to Indigenous Australians. The living things in the environment are seen as part of the kinship system; the land itself can be a mentor, teacher, parent to a child.
AR Why is the Venice Biennale still important, if at all? And what is the importance of showing there? Is it about visibility, inclusion, acknowledgement?
AR It has historical importance as being the first biennale and one of the longest-running cultural events in the world. Exhibiting your art there brings new audiences that might not be familiar with my practice and, hopefully, will lead to more exhibition opportunities internationally. I am hoping people visiting the pavilion will gain a greater understanding of First Nations history in Australia which stretches back 65,000+ years, the challenges that Indigenous people face in Australia – statistically one of the most incarcerated populations globally – and also my personal history. To show, through the experience of the work, that we are all connected here on Earth.
AR When you make artworks do you have a specific audience in mind?
AM When I am creating the artwork the specific audience in mind is me. When I begin a work I am thinking more about making the artwork because it is a cathartic process to talk about personal events and experiences as a First Nations person. I include a lot of personal paraphernalia in my installations – for instance in my exhibition Dwelling (Victorian Issue) in 2022, in which I recreated my childhood home, I included embarrassing journal notes and drawings.
I do consider others when I have been commissioned to create a specific work or when I implicate the viewer and they are part of the work – when I attempt to put them ‘in my shoes’ to share my experience. In Dwelling the viewer is immersed in my memory of my home. Or, for the exhibition Les Eaux d’Amoore in 2014, where I worked with a perfumer to create scents that trigger a memory for me, of my father, first day of school, a girlfriend… Of course, there is no way of verifying if anyone has the same experience as me when they engage with the work and that is what I am more interested in. Can we ever know or understand each other? Will Indigenous and non-Indigenous people ever reconcile?
AR Do you think there is such a thing as national art? Or is all art universal? Is there something that defines your nation’s artistic traditions? And what is misunderstood or forgotten about your nation’s art history?
AM I think art is fairly universal with artistic traditions of certain groups giving that universality a twist. Australia has 250 nations with their own artist traditions inside each nation state. That Aboriginal people just do “dot paintings” is a big misunderstanding and simplistic view when there are Aboriginal peoples today creating art from every medium and style. For instance, Kamilaroi people are known for Dendroglyphs – an engraving in a living tree trunk in geometric shapes. I used a stylised version of the Dendroglyph to create a linen flag design to represent my Kamilaroi nation in my public art commission United Neytions (2014–17). The work is comprised of 28 speculative flags for different Aboriginal nations and is permanently installed at the Sydney International Airport.
AR If someone were to visit your nation, what three things would you recommend they see or read in order to understand it better?
AM The Fimiston Open Pit to witness the scale of extraction of minerals from Indigenous land; watch the film Wake in Fright (1971) that held a mirror and showed the world who we were, but we denied it was us; the heritage-listed Big Pineapple, Sunshine Coast, one of the many kitsch tourist attractions dotted along Australia’s highways. Environmental disregard, racism and Australian humour.
AR Which other artists have influenced or inspired you?
AM Gregor Schneider’s Totes Haus u r at the 2001 Venice Biennale I found profoundly affecting. I felt like I was inside Gregor’s head, inside his memory of his house, there were many openings to walk, crawl, crouch down, with smaller spaces that had doors you could open and peer into. It was up to you how much you wanted to ‘know’ of the space. There was a waiver visitors had to sign before entering the installation which made it more exciting psychologically. Because there were lots of narrow passages, not everyone could experience the full scope of the work – if you were elderly, disabled or too tall in size.
I like and support a lot of what my Indigenous artist contemporaries do… I watch a lot of films and listen to music – Post Punk / Goth from England being a favourite. Soviet-era films I find inspiring in how they circumvent the authoritarian restrictions placed upon their work; they invent ingenious ways to express yourself without getting penalised by using symbolism.
Going to an unusual place like a boat shop, army disposals, drapery store etc – somewhere I wouldn’t normally go – is something I do when I am lacking inspiration. I will see new materials that may make me think of some application in an artwork, like drawing over vinyl tablecloths in studio work I did in Prague in 2001 or using a tiny keyring digital photo frame slideshow to put inside a snow dome, Snowdome (2013), to comment on British nuclear tests on Aboriginal soil.
AR What, other than your own work, are you looking forward to seeing while you are in Venice?
AM Looking forward to the cooler climate and seeing the rest of the Biennale when I have some spare time. I am interested in seeing the work of Eva Kotátková, Jeffrey Gibson, John Akomfrah RA and Innuteq Storch.
The 60th Venice Biennale, 20 April – 24 November
