Ekphrastic poems are inspired by art. Sometimes called the art of describing art, ekphrastic poems help silent artworks to speak. In fact, the Greek word ekphrasis means “to speak out.”
Red Room Poetry commissioned poets to visit the National Gallery of Australia, pick a painting and pen a poem. We then worked in partnership with the NGA to develop these two fantastic ekphrastic resources, each with content for primary and secondary:
Beyond the Frame features poets Nam Le and Dylan Van Den Berg responding to the work of Sidney Nolan and Benjamin Duterrau.
A Vivid Expansion features Barrina South and Andrew Geoffrey Kwabena Moss alongside painters Eugene Von Guerard and Fiona Foley.
Featured Poets
-
Quilting the Armour
By Nam LeSun everywhere, and shadow. Swamplight, aquarium light
turning the far-off fields almost Kelly green, bullion-fringed.
Stitch of tracer gold. Crystallised moments you see, hear things clear:
the end, and past too. Shack, hill, horses, watertank, windmill — -
Red Face Man
By Dylan Van Den BergRed face man don’t smile with his teeth but he clench my hand
like a purinina grips a bird by the neck.
Me and the bird the same –
Made the same promise whether we holler or hold our breath. -
-
HHH/KKK
By Andrew Geoffrey Kwabena MossFor Fiona Foley
‘The power to define the other seals one’s definition of oneself – who, then, in such a fearful mathematic is trapped?’
~ James Baldwin
-
NGA - New Logo (2025-)
