Moore (the map is not the territory) V1
Walter Stahl
- Sitter: Archie Moore
- Medium: acrylic, charcoal(in acrylic binder), ink, chalk, on paper (map facsimile), on honeycomb board
- Dimensions: 82cm x 119cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
About the artwork
Archie Moore is a Kamilaroi and Bigambul man and one of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists. With a career spanning almost four decades, he is known internationally for Kith and Kin, his landmark work which won the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
What is not as well-known is his character Magnus O’Pus, lead singer for the alternative art-rock and noise collective, Eggvein, characterised by a tall black wig, part of which can be seen in this portrait.
The portrait is sombre and entirely in black and white, Moore leaning back with an expression somewhere between knowing, burdened and defiant. On his shoulder sits Black Dog, a self-portrait Moore made over a decade ago. Walter Stahl, who has known Moore since the early 2010s, uses maps extensively in his work. Painted on a facsimile map, the work layers identity, place and naming into a single, quietly monumental image.
About the artist
Walter Stahl is a Brisbane based artist who moved from Germany in 1998. He has made Brisbane a central subject of his practice ever since. Since 2012 his work has centred on the Croqland Suite, a body of work across painting, drawing, photography, video and assemblage that processes his experience of Queensland culture through the crocodilian image. He has won the Churchie Emerging Art Award and the Perth Photomedia Award.
