Rod Moss

Lives: Alice Springs, NT

I’ve lived in Alice Springs since 1984, writing, painting, and drawing. More than half that time I lectured at Charles Darwin University. Prior to then I was teaching and exhibiting in Melbourne.

Australia’s relationship with its First Peoples, following the pattern of European countries worldwide, has been contentious since colonisation. How this relationship was unfolding in Central Australia occupied my attention from the get go. My creative work concerning this relationship has ineluctably attracted attention in town and far beyond. 

The artwork has been widely exhibited and reviewed in Australia and the U.S.A. reaching a significant audience with representation in the 2004 NGV Show, Australian Art Now, and featuring among the four other representatives in the Australian chapter of Terry Smith’s Contemporary Art: World Currents.

Both memoirs, The Hard Light of Day and One Thousand Cuts won the NT Book of the Year. Hard Light also won the Prime Minister's Award for non-fiction 2011. 

The drawings, re-describing  country close to home, have strong affiliation with the figurative social commentary. It is after all the same country that I’ve walked, hunted and camped in with the families staffing the paintings during 40 years. The drawings are uniformly grey. While they celebrate with loving detail specific places the  tone intends to alert the viewer that our environment is not as pristine and healthy as it appears.

My excitement derives from bringing the look and feel of something into existence that creates the illusion of a parallel world.

Rod Moss

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