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Archie Moore
East/West Bookcases
2010
modified wooden bookshelves, wood, plastic
Working across various media, Archie Moore’s conceptual practice examines language and history
through the prism of Aboriginal experience in Australia. In
East/West Bookcases
, Moore explores
the cultural specificity of signs and symbols mediated through a familiar trope of globalisation,
IKEA furniture. Two generic bookcases are remodelled to form the words ‘black’ in English and
‘white’ as the Chinese character,
白
. The shelves house additional text, though not in the form of
books. Letters and Chinese characters are glued directly to the shelves spelling out some common
Anglo and Chinese cultural associations with these words. Some words like ‘showing profit’ seem
innocuous while others, such as ‘evil’, have potent cultural significance.
Moore plays up word-associations that are familiar to each language group, creating both overlaps
and deep contrasts in meaning for English and Chinese-speaking audiences. For example, while
English-speaking audiences are familiar with the colour black’s symbolic connotations with death
and mourning, for Chinese-speaking audiences Moore uses white, not black, to evoke these
meanings in accordance with an aspect of Chinese cultural custom. A project central to his work,
Moore points to the malevolent effects of language, particularly where harmful language is
disguised through euphemism or the veil of neutrality, especially so in the context of racial
vilification.
Each bookshelf presents a word and culture puzzle that tips into a far more complex commentary
than the first obvious reading and consequently has no intention to be solved.
East/West Book-
cases
stirs bilingual and cultural curiosity that exploits the dualistic nature of the exhibition being
situated in Australia and China simultaneously. Within this staged dialogue, Moore exposes the
opposing forces of cultural homogenisation, through globalisation in the use of the IKEA
readymade; and rising cultural literacy, through his bespoke, nuanced and layered composition.
