Dusk Of Nations: In Conversation with Fiona Foley, Archie Moore and Keemon Williams

Join Curator Kyle Weise in conversation with Dusk of Nations artists Fiona Foley, Archie Moore and Keemon Williams.

 

Dusk of Nations features selected works by leading Australian-based artists drawn primarily from the UQ Collection. Spanning painting, photography, sculptural objects and moving image, artists explore ideas of national identity and nationhood, and how these concepts are defended and maintained, resisted and subverted.

 

This is a free event. All attendees must register and show tickets to UQ Art Museum Staff upon entry.

 

Please inform us of any accessibility requirements through the registration page. Please note that a two week lead time is required to secure Auslan interpretation for this event. Visit our website for our accessibility information.

 

Image: Fiona Foley Janjari, 2022. Video Installation. Commissioned by Hervey Bay Regional Gallery. Installation View, Dusk Of Nations, UQ Art Museum, 2024. Photo: Joseph Ruckli.

 

FIONA FOLEY

 

Born at Maryborough on her Badtjala Country, Queensland. Lives and works in Yuggera and Turrbal Country/Brisbane, Queensland. Associate Professor Fiona Foley FAHA has a national and international profile as a leading contemporary artist and historian. She is currently a Principal Research Fellow at UQ. Her work has produced substantial new knowledge around the Queensland Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act (1897). Her monograph Biting the Clouds: A Badtjala perspective on the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act was awarded the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance in 2021, alongside a Highly Commended in the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. During her time as Adjunct Professor at UQ (2011-17) Foley initiated the Courting Blakness exhibition, conference, and publication. In recognition of her achievements, Foley has been elected an Honorary Fellow in the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Most recently, she was awarded a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) for her project, “Investigating the Agency of Aboriginal Frontier War Memorials”. Recent solo exhibitions include: Fiona Foley: Veiled Paradise, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane (2021) and tour; Who are these strangers and where are they going?, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Ballarat (2019); and Horror has a face, Andrew Baker Art Dealer (2017). Recent group exhibitions include Beating About The Bush, Art Gallery of Ballarat (2022-2023); HOTA Collects: Punching Up, 21st Century Indigenous Photography, Home of the Arts (HOTA), Gold Coast (2022); Just Not Australian, Artspace, Sydney (2019); and Dark Rooms: Women Directing the Lens 1978-98, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane (2018). Foley’s work is widely collected in major Australian galleries and museums and in 2024 her film Janjari was selected as the winner of the Alice Prize awarded by the judge Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham. In 2023, she was appointed as an Associate Professor in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at UQ. 

 

ARCHIE MOORE

 

Born 1970, Yuggera, Giabal, and Jarowar Country/Toowoomba, Queensland. Kamilaroi/Bigambul peoples. Lives and works in Quandamooka Country/Redland, Queensland. Archie Moore is represented by The Commercial Gallery, Marrickville. Selected solo exhibitions include Archie Moore, Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2024); Archie Moore: Pillors of Democracy, Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns (2023); Archie Moore – Dwelling (Victorian Issue), Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (2022); and The Colour Line: Archie Moore & W.E.B. Du Bois, University of New South Wales (UNSW) Galleries, Sydney. Selected group exhibitions include Embodied Knowledge: Queensland Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane (2022); Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia, National Gallery Singapore (2022); Botanica: Contemporary Arts Outside, City Botanic Gardens, Brisbane (2022); and UN/LEARNING AUSTRALIA, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2021).

 

KEEMON WILLIAMS

 

Born 1999. Lives and works in Yuggera and Turrbal Country/Brisbane, Queensland. Keemon Williams is a queer artist of Koa, Kuku Yalanji, and Miriam Mir descent. Recent solo exhibitions include KAIKAI, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns (2023); sunk-cost fallacy, Kuiper Projects, Brisbane (2023); and Fairy Tales, Carpark Gallery, Brisbane (2023). Recent group exhibitions include Torsion, Metro Arts, Brisbane (2023-2024); Wurrdha Marra, NGV, Melbourne (2023-ongoing); OUTstanding: Indigenous Art Project, MoB, Brisbane (2022); and CHARACTER LIMIT, Wreckers Artspace, Brisbane (2022). Williams works as Exhibitions Assistant at Outer Space Gallery, Brisbane, and is a founding member of ANTHEM ARI.