Construction of the Sydney Modern Project is creating a new home for art on the hoarding surrounding the site.
Sydney artist Joan Ross’ commissioned artwork, We have sung the same song for millions of years, a hand-painted digital vinyl print, has been installed on the hoarding. The 20-metre site-specific work pays homage to the longevity of the planet while recognising our human connections to place.
Come and see the work for yourself on Art Gallery Road - opening hours are 24/7!
This imaginative view of Sydney Harbour is not topographically accurate but quotes drawings and prints of the harbour made by colonial-era artist Joseph Lycett.
The land and its animals speak to us in English and Indigenous language. The birds – carriers of knowledge – represent both the endurance of Indigenous culture and the ancient history of Australia’s endemic plants and animals.
Indigenous figures share the space with settlers in Regency dress, including a naturalist, signifying the Enlightenment urge to collect, classify and name nature.
The ‘hi-vis’ fluorescent yellow colour symbolises authority and control and is a metaphor for colonisation. Elements from contemporary life, including the party decorations and cakes, construction cranes and warning signs, inject an element of sardonic humour into an epic tale of longevity and change.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, and now based in Sydney, Australia, Joan Ross is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes video, virtual reality, installation, drawing and digital printmaking.
Her work quotes colonial, scientific and art-historical references, re-working them with the addition or removal of visual elements to create new meaning. A signature feature of Ross’ work is her use of fluorescent ‘hi-vis’ yellow, a colour with associations of surveillance, authority and danger. Using humour and the absurd, she takes a critical look at Australia’s colonial past and contemporary Australian commodity culture.
Ross has exhibited since the mid-1980s. Her work is in Australian and international public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. In 2017 she was the winner of the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and in 2019 was commissioned for the inaugural Mordant Family Virtual Reality commission at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
For media enquiries, including high-resolution images of the artwork contact Simone Bird simone.bird@ag.nsw.gov.au or Denise Knight denise.knight@ag.nsw.gov.au
For more information about the Sydney Modern Project see artgallery.nsw.gov.au/smp
For other artworks by Joan Ross in the collection see artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection
Your work takes a critical look at Australia’s colonial past and contemporary commodity culture. You quote colonial, scientific and art-historical references, often using humour and the absurd, to create new meanings. Tell us the story of We have sung the same song for millions of years.
My work seeks to remind us of colonialism’s ongoing presence and effects. I want to acknowledge the longevity of Australian Indigenous culture as well as the enduring history of Australia’s endemic plants and animals.
Your Sydney Modern Project art commission for the Gallery is site-specific. What influence did the location play when you were making it?
My practice includes video, VR, drawing and printmaking. This work is on a larger scale, specifically designed for the Sydney Modern Project hoarding, and is informed by the location in several ways. These include the view of Sydney Harbour from the south where the Art Gallery of New South Wales sits; artworks I’ve quoted by colonial-era artist Joseph Lycett (one of which is in the AGNSW permanent collection) and my wish to acknowledge the ongoing presence and effects of colonialism on the people, flora and fauna of this land.
A signature feature of your work is the use of fluorescent ‘hi-vis’ yellow, which is a prominent feature of this commission. Tell us why you use this colour, and how you brought it to life on such a large scale in We have sung the same song for millions of years.
Hi-vis yellow is a colour I associate with surveillance, authority and danger. I link it to colonisation, as I saw it invade my own view when, years ago, it started to become the uniform of the workers. It’s a colour alien to the environment unless as a warning. Here it has been painted on the water of Sydney Harbour as a unifying visual link to signify control and colonial possession of Indigenous land.
The hi-vis needed to be painted on by hand in order to have such a powerful fluorescent impact – that colour can’t be printed, like the rest of the image has been, we had to use paint!
How would you like people to experience the work?
My work constantly tries to connect both Indigenous and non-Indigenous experiences and in particular to stay engaged with a conversation about colonisation and its effects – I want to keep the conversation open. I’ve used images of birds to remind people about the loss of habitat and species throughout the world.
What excites you about the Gallery’s expansion?
I am really excited that the Gallery will be able to show more art here in Sydney, from Australia and around the world. More art for the people – that can only be a good thing!
Anne Ryan, curator of Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW, asked Joan Ross about her commission for the Sydney Modern Project site hoarding.