Rod Moss’s luminous drawings are born out of decades of intimate relationship, conversation, engagement, and profound friendship with Arrernte peoples and their beloved country. The drawings are crafted, as Moss puts it, with an intent ‘…to immerse the eye in intimate detail.’ Moss delights in the detail. He celebrates it. ‘What bounty,’ he exclaims. But without the craft, the artistry, and the drawing skills, Moss would not have been able to respond so powerfully to old Patrick’ Ampetyane Hayes’s expansive call to depict his ‘fat country.’

 

After years of practice, observation, immersion, and above all, of walking alongside his many Arrernte guides and mentors, Moss can indeed ‘sing the language of the curve.’ And much more. Moss’s drawings, and the poetic words that accompany them, are a rapturous singing of country, a symphony composed of loving detail, a tender expression of gratitude — the micro made epic. And as a member of the audience, I too am guided. Informed. Enraptured. And deeply grateful.

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These drawings are paired with Moss' poetry also inspired by the land called Dancing Under heavy Mannors.