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Archie Moore: 1970 – 2018

Sarah Werkmeister
Eyeline 90
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It is the generosity in Archie Moore’s art practice that sets his work apart from much ‘Australian’ art. Not only is it emotionally generous, insofar as Moore offers a personal experience that allows audiences to connect with his work in an empathetic way, it is also generous in the way it illustrates an insatiable desire to understand the ways that soft and hard powers (and their emotional impacts) operate in the world. His curiosity, evident in visual and sensorial cues, through the scope of his practice, and through the inner world that he allows us in to, is the most generous thing that he could give.

When visiting Moore’s first major institutional exhibition, Archie Moore: 1970 – 2018 at Griffith University, one encounters emotional triggers that recall both happy and not-so-quaint histories. Just one example is the way in which the artist expresses memory in an open way, which allows the viewer to imagine freely, while the work remains strong in recreating a specific memory. Indeed, the title of the exhibition is itself a memorial of some kind. The exhibition is not a retrospective. Rather, its timespan indicates the years that Moore has been alive… an index of some kind.

Archie Moore: 1970 – 2018 is presented in multiple parts—outdoors, indoors, and in the walkway/ foyer into the Griffith University Art Museum. Each part is haunted by Moore’s yearning and by manifestations of his memory, presented from multiple standpoints. It is pertinent, then, that the names of the rooms recall different kinds of ‘cameras’. Accessed through three doors at the entrance to the exhibition, there are seven rooms, each presented as a separate work: Camera Affecta, Camera Familiaris,... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Archie Moore: 1970—2018, Griffith University Art Museum, 2018. Installation view, gallery reception. Photograph Carl Warner. Courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney.

Archie Moore: 1970—2018, Griffith University Art Museum, 2018. Installation view, gallery reception. Photograph Carl Warner. Courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney.

Camera Aviae, 2018. Archie Moore: 1970—2018, Griffith University Art Museum, 2018. Installation views. Photograph Carl Warner. Courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney.

Camera Aviae, 2018. Archie Moore: 1970—2018, Griffith University Art Museum, 2018. Installation views. Photograph Carl Warner. Courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney.