The claiming of things | Joan Ross

The claiming of things reconfigures and plays with, as its backdrop, an early Australian colonial painting by John Glover.

The work considers numerous themes simultaneously: the connection to, the disconnection from and ultimately the attempt to civilise nature; imperialism, its power relationships and racism; consumerism and throw-away culture. Global warming, fear, ownership, boundaries, surveillance, graffiti tagging, naming and claiming.

Hi-Vis fluoro, colourfully and gratingly pollutes with the fear of litigation and control over land. Colonials spray layered graffiti like cats claiming territory. Electronic roadsigns wheel in, pointing to the need to merge, though they suggest this may take time! A crane brings in cup-cakes, a tractor pushes in the detritus of high consumption lifestyles: Ming vases, mobile phones, Persian carpets, high art, a kangaroo fur pillow, and designer trash bags! A soccer game plays on a widescreen that tumbles down the hill and into the water. The world turns from pristine to colourful but out of touch, eventually to be restored by flood to its natural state. Un-peopled.