Irshadgul News report,
by Rod Moss
A chronicle of my time, reacting to my immediate environment, is the purpose of this series about my paintings.
They are mostly reconstructions of events, situated between fact and fiction and presented like chronological excerpts from a large format visual magazine.
of 300 or more works, One History Rolling (1st ed., 1987, picture on top) is one of my favourites.
“History must go on, young fellow.”
With those words the senior man, Edward Araney Johnson, encouraged me to create images and illustrations that could reach a wider public.
“Keep the reception line open,” he thought, as well as his camp and country might have been hidden from the mainstream and in need of immediate attention.
I set the painting on the telegraph station, knowing that a century earlier, Frank Gillen had participated in the ceremony when he was in charge. Having befriended Baldwin Spencer, a Melbourne-based anthropologist, during the Horn expedition of 1894, he later helped facilitate the celebrations for Spencer’s camera.
Arranye Johnson stands midpoint. Xavier Neill, Robert Ryder and Jude Johnson are to his right. Noelle Johnson alerts us to something off the screen. Some young children, in formal formation (quoted from Charles Mountford’s 1948, Brown Men and Red Sand) are barely visible on the right.
This was my first work using the atomistic brushing of pointillism to enhance light.
