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 a disdain for colonial superiority, Joan Ross is an artist whose daringly honest approach to the legacy of colonialism in Australia penetrates the armour and/or camouflage of contemporary society’s fine-washing of Australia’s past, present and future.
With a bold humanist style, Ross’ cross-disciplinary practice and philosophical mission as a Scottish Australian artist, is born from a desire to understand Australia’s protected shady layers of colonial histories. Fluoro and furious, Ross re-imagines colonial imagery, imbuing each work with a slew of cultural references that reflect eras unwittingly lived by us all – critiquing the complex and ongoing issues surrounding the effects of greed, globalisation and colonisation, all while leaving you with a smile.