WHEN : 4th Aug, 6:00pm
WHERE : Boxcopy
Clover : New work by Archie Moore
Exhibition dates : 4 – 25 August 2012
In mid 1981 the then Premier of Queensland Joh Bjelke-Peterson snubbed a World Council of Churches investigation into Aboriginal living conditions by saying that there was no need as Aboriginal Australians ‘lived in clover’ and ‘paradise’ compared to the plight of some of the people represented by the delegation. Clover, particularly the four-leaf variety, has adopted symbols of luck, love, hope and faith (St Patrick’s telling of the three leaf clover representing ‘the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost’). It is also a nationalistic symbol of the Irish rebellion against English rule in the 19th century. Clover presents new work by Archie Moore that uses paint and text to assemble and interrogate selected histories. Beginning with ‘clover’ this work follows Moore’s interest in highlighting the role of racism within both personal and political sectors, the [im]possibility of knowing another and the cruelty and discrimination that arises from such breakdowns in understanding. Resembling a scrawled protest banner draped or discarded over a makeshift dwelling, Clover highlights the lie of a luxurious life and the sort of ignorance or provincialism Donald Horne talked about in his perpetually misquoted/misread book The Lucky Country (1964).
Archie Moore graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Queensland University of Technology. He was awarded the prestigious Anne and Gordon Samstag Scholarship for study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Moore has exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at Ryan Renshaw Gallery (Brisbane), The Cosmic Battle For Your Heart (Sydney), SGAR (Brisbane), ‘Light from Light’ at the National Library of China and most recently at Higure Gallery in Japan. He is represented by The Commercial Gallery, Sydney.
Image: Archie Moore, 2012, Clover. Digital Image
