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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Joan Ross, Who said possession is nine-tenths of the law?, 2024

Joan Ross

Who said possession is nine-tenths of the law?, 2024
watercolour & synthetic polymer paint on paper
74.5 x 114.5 cm

Finalist in the 2024 Wynne Prize
There is a greed about colonising someone else’s land, an agreed greed that continues today and a lack of sensitivity to the original inhabitants of this land and the land...
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There is a greed about colonising someone else’s land, an agreed greed that continues today and a lack of sensitivity to the original inhabitants of this land and the land itself

There is a disconnection with nature and a self centeredness that defies care
Whenever I am in the bush I see signs of humans making their mark on nature
I see graffiti tags on rocks, I see love and hate, political messages, personal tags, words like fuck, initials and love hearts
This colonial woman, who could be any of us, sprays the word mine, which is about personal ownership but also about mining the land

There are also the tags of Macquarie and Banks and other colonial figures that talks of their takeover
& tagging is a way of marking territory or like a cat spraying or marking its territory

Using hi vis yellow a colour that can’t be missed, a colour that holds power, she is
taking possession and we are complicit.
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