joan ross
you can't just take everything
3 october - 1 november 2014
JOAN ROSS combines images of early colonial paintings with aspects of contemporary life in her witty and darkly humorous digital prints and videos.
These striking works force the viewer to contemplate the complex relationship we have with the Imperial occupation of Australia. Relationships of power are often symbolised in her use of fluorescent colours, referencing hi-vis vests where the wearer has the power to go anywhere, unquestioned. The title of her exhibition, You can't just take everything, implies otherwise.
She often appropriates colonial paintings, such as those by John Glover and Jospeh Lycett, and turns their depiction of an Arcadian land blessed with peaceful coexistence between the Aboriginal population and the early settlers, into artworks that challenge this notion. Her hi-vis vest wearing early settlers are out of touch with reality, flying in on their magic carpet to picnic with the Aborigines in her video BBQ this Sunday, BYO. In Colonial grab a well-to-do colonial woman, clad in fluro yellow, plays a slot machine to win land and creates sculptures out of Glover trees in her Ikebana room. The claiming of things features a colonial couple that graffiti a rock face (hilariously spelling out Bank$ia) in a landscape divided by a fluorescent yellow picket fence, whilst a group of Aborigines swim and laze alongside the river. The settlers go on to trash this idyllic landscape, their debris including illuminated roadside signage declaring 'INSERT MEMORY STICK', 'PREPARE TO MERGE' and 'EXPECT DELAYS'.
Joan Ross' artworks can be found in the public collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Artbank, the regional galleries of Bathurst, Gold Coast and Newcastle, the University of Sydney and the University of Wollongong, along with many important corporate and private collections.
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- TURNER GALLERIES | showcasing contemporary art
at 470 WILLIAM STREET NORTHBRIDGE WESTERN AUSTRALIA 6003 - TURNER GALLERIES HAS NOW CLOSED.
This website is an archived record of the exhibitions and artwork shown at the gallery. - Turner Galleries acknowledges the Whadjuk Nyoongar people as the Traditional Owners of the lands and waters where Turner Galleries is situated, and pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
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