Joan Ross, Let’s party like it’s 1815 (digital video still), 2022

Joan Ross

Let’s party like it’s 1815

Let’s party like its 1815 is imbued with references – some subtle, some not so – whilst critiquing Australian colonisation and its legacies (or rather, false discoveries.) “I see Australian colonisation as a car crash; in slow motion we watch the lack of regard and insensitivity – the long-drawn-out slide towards an inevitable crumpled heap. We saw it happening, but we couldn’t stop it, now it’s left for us to clean up.“

Penetrating the colonial canvas, Ross leaves us to watch a tableau of greed. The ultimate separation from nature: self-interest, lack of care, possession, ownership, mansions, silverware, violent festivities toasting over ‘their land’; blow flies, bees, celebratory fireworks over a bleak horizon; balloons, lavish curtains, fake advertisements for leaf blowers and perfume; native-non-native plants pollinating with themselves, flowers with the heads of colonists/aliens; security cameras, butterflies, superiority, willy-willies spitting out leather lounges, TVs, light bulbs, happy couple figurines, pianos, vases, paintings, oh my!

All the trappings spinning, leaving us upside down, looking in a series of incoherent bursts while a Chesterfield lounge and a mansion sink into the Earth’s nethers. Back to nature, a return to dirt, as it was – as it should be.

Artist: Joan Ross
Opening: Thursday 23 April 6pm
Exhibition: 24 April–30 May 2026
Where: BAMM Gallery
FREE

Biography

Working from a deep love of nature and disdain for colonial superiority, Scottish Australian artist Joan Ross takes an honest approach to colonialism in Australia, penetrating the frequent whitewashing of Australia’s colonial past and present. Ross’ philosophical approach that spans a range of media, is born from a desire to understand and critically engage with that history. Fluoro and furious, Ross reimagines colonial imagery, imbuing each work with cultural references that make visible our ongoing complicitness in the colonial legacy. Using her trademark fluoro yellow, Ross highlights the pervasiveness and impact of colonialism, focusing especially on the outcomes of greed.

Currently, Ross has a large video projection at the AGNSW in the collection show SUPER NATURE. Recently she had a survey show at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Those trees came back to me in my dreams, 2024-2025, where she was invited to select portraits from the collection and situate them alongside her own artworks.

In 2022, Ross illuminated the façade of the National Gallery of Australia during the Enlighten Festival. Joan Ross was awarded the National Art School Fellowship in 2023. In 2021 the artist designed the hoarding for The Art Gallery of New South Wales' Sydney Modern expansion. She is currently working from Artspace Gadigal, where she received a sponsored two-year studio.

Joan Ross works across artforms including painting and drawing, and is keenly interested in 3d digital printing, video and virtual reality. Commissioned by Mordant & ACMI, Ross made Did you ask the river? (2018) a virtual reality project where the intuitive or natural desire of users reveal that we are all part of the colonial problem.