Rebecca Ross.
Strange Weather
University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery
Artist Statement
This work focuses on the seabed of the Timor Sea and Indian Ocean, specifically Greater Sunrise, a gas field discovered in 1974 and stalled for decades due to disagreements and maritime disputes between the joint venture partners, and the Timor-Leste and Australian Governments.
‘Greater Sunrise’ comprises a 20-minute kaleidoscopic video montage of mostly news footage related to the gas field found in the public domain and a score featuring a sound healing instrument. The work is projected in large scale inside a space screened by a curtain made from shade cloth. On the floor are triangular cushions made from the same material.
The work presents a case for the intersections of geopolitics, extractive industries and climate change; however, it is an abstract view that encourages viewers to contemplate and awaken to the complications of energy sustainability, politics, and human impact on our environment.
About the artists
Rebecca Ross is a visual artist based on Kombumerri Country (Queensland’s Southern Gold Coast) whose practice navigates the junctures of site, situation and sensation. Her work, which she describes as ‘exercises in mapping’, combines found maps and video, text, photography, collage, mixed media and installation. Her most recent work is concerned with the creation of conceptual maps that traverse geopolitical concerns and notions of transcendence in airspace, ocean space and terrestrial zones. Rebecca’s expanded mapping practice includes recreational planespotting and surfing. She is an active part of the international ADB-S flight tracking network and a founder and member of the Artist Boardriders Club.
Since graduating from Queensland University of Technology with a Masters of Fine Art in 2005, Rebecca has exhibited at the Embassy of Australia in Washington D.C. U.S.A., British School at Rome in Italy, University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Museum of Brisbane, HOTA Home of the Arts, Metro Arts, Outer Space, Bleach Festival and Festival 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. In 2012 Rebecca was awarded the Rome Studio at the British School at Rome by the Australia Council for the Arts to research the Galleria delle carte geografiche (Gallery of Maps) located in Vatican City. Rebecca has been the recipient of numerous grants, including the Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists’ Fellowship in 2004, which have supported her to travel to Malta (Gozo, Valletta), Italy (Venice, Milan), United States of America (New York, Los Angeles, Miami) and New Zealand (Wellington, Auckland) to undertake site-based residencies and research.
In 2013 she returned to the Gold Coast where she founded The Walls, a nationally recognised artist-run space that she directed until 2021.
Credits: Rebecca Ross