Courtesy: the artist and N.Smith Gallery, Sydney.

Ads pervade our lives and our disconnection with nature is like a ravine. Imagine if they’d cared smells the stench of Possession, our latest perfume. Penetrating the colonial canvas of colonial era paintings these works are imbued with references whilst critiquing Australian colonisation and its legacies.

Joan Ross brings us to a spinning tableau of greed, separation from nature, self-interest, lack of care, false discovering, possession, ownership, mansions, silverware, celebrations for control over ‘their land’, blow flies, bees, fireworks, balloons, lush curtains, faux advertisements for leaf blowers and perfume, native versus non-native plants, consumerism, waterfalls, pollination, blowing leaves, fountains spewing gold, flowers with the heads of colonists, security cameras, butterflies, superiority, a huge willy willy, with leather lounges, tv’s, torches, lightbulbs, happy couple figurines, pianos, vases, cutlery, paintings, all the trappings spin and spin, spitting out and leaving us with the Chesterfield lounge and the mansion, they finally sink, taking us back to nature, as it was.

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