The Language of the Land was developed from the script and vision of Rhoda Roberts AO, in collaboration with Arrernte Elders and the team at We Are Gather. As Creative Lead at Artists in Motion, I was responsible for interpreting this story into a visual language for the signature show across the MacDonnell Ranges.
The challenge was to choreograph how this narrative would move across such a vast landscape. To bridge the two kilometre distance between the audience and the mountains, I developed a layered visual approach, using the large scale LED scrims in the foreground to carry the story, synchronised with gobos and lighting across the landscape. Together these elements created an experience that felt both intimate and epic in scale.
The layered design allowed the stories to move across the landscape, from intimate moments that revealed kinship and knowledge to the renewal of Country after rain. Synchronised across multiple layers, the show unfolded with a natural rhythm, carrying each story from the foreground out across the land and into the MacDonnell Ranges.
