See more at: richardtipping.com

Code Red, 2019. Pine timber, plywood, enamel paint. Dimensions 130 x 130 x 14 cm.

Code Red means an emergency alert code. Code Red is a portrait of the social world in a time of anxiety. On the iconic ‘stop’ of a red octagon, five symbols stand in raised blocks, representing (left to right) nuclear power, humankind, the future; and (top to bottom) missile weaponry, humankind, fear. When combined, these create a dynamic field where a complex of possible meanings self-generate. These symbols were designed in 1984 during an artist residency near to Milan in Italy thanks to the Australia Council, and made as cut-outs in black card. At the time it felt like the world could end through nuclear war between the USSR and the USA at any time. Thirty five years later we live in a similar state of anxiety, and now with the added fear of plaque and climate change.The  symbol shapes are black with silver edging, standing on a bright red background, which gives a solid sculptural dimension. The finish using automotive enamel paint provides extra visual depth and resilience.

Richard Tipping with Division of the Sexes outside the Ozone factory in 1997. Photo by Warren Langley

The front window of WordXimage showing the Big Works exhibition

Top Paddock ('ooroo'), engraved glass bricks including Stone Cold Sober at Last, and Division of the Sexes in large slump glass

Big Works at WXI including Jump Start ('ooroo'); The Relative (E=MC2) in both full size stainless steel and wooden maquettes; and Come In We're Closed

Near Encounter Bay, 2019  Dimensions: H 120 x W 300 x D 3 cmMaterials: Reflective tape and vinyl letters on aluminium, brass letters, Aboriginal wooden spear, wooden oar, cane fishing rod, bakelite reel, wild seaweed balls from Waitpinga Beach in South Australia.

NEAR ENCOUNTER BAY

i have come home

to myth, i have come

in this weather

to pitch a bare shelter

and keep watch

alone, till flaps cut

loose, burst into fire

from the jib ...

! sea-wind, spray

flabbergast of waves

rocks, waving farewell

to ships going down

to candleflame

spitting moths - dream

wildly my sweet

of fishermen, their heads

of salmon, salmon-kind

poled to the sand

on their bellies like men

gasping for air

             .... continued >>

their thirst, after water

dying of song

“if whales could scream

there'd be no man a whaler”

but her eyes!  we toss

together leaner than knives

our skin of salt

our sailors' kisses

dowsed with ale!

not cuttlefish, driftwood

the sighing of whales

going down, the fear

of sand blowing back from bone

of bone laid bare

and splintering with rain –

“wake up, wake up,

we are here!”

Richard Tipping 1973

Artist statement:

"Three wooden artefacts – an old hand-made oar, an original Aboriginal hunting spear, and a salmon-fishing pole from sixty years ago –-reference cultures in the littoral zone of the coast. The poem recounts fishing, whaling, a wreck, and early European exploration and settlement in South Australia.

Near Encounter Bay brings a potent poem living history in the landscape into an assembled sculptural form. The poem in vinyl letters is held on a reflective sign to be read by the viewer as a spoken balance to the silent colour-test of the background. The letters and ampersands of S & E & A make the SEA with waves, in a never still horizon."