Jump start – our ’roo shoots through – 5m

Jump start – our ’roo shoots through
Richard Tipping

500cm & 420cm H
170 x 170 cm (sign), 75 x 114 cm (kangaroo)
aluminium and reflective on integrated poles,
edition of  3

Jump start combines road-sign language and vernacular speech, with absence as a tangible presence. The ’roo has jumped away, leaving its iconic outline, along with the ‘see you later’ meaning of the traditional phrase ‘ooroo’. The ’roo depiction has been carefully traced from the design of an Australian copper penny (1938–64).

The word ‘kangaroo’ derives from the Guugu Yimithirr word gangurru, referring to grey kangaroos. It was first recorded as ‘Kangooroo or Kanguru’ in 1770 by Lieutenant James Cook on the banks of the Endeavour River at the site of today’s Cooktown, when his ship the Endeavour was beached for almost seven weeks to repair damage sustained on the Great Barrier Reef. ‘Ooroo’ is a palindrome; however, kangooroos can’t walk backwards.

– Richard Tipping, 2016

Interested in this Sculpture or Artist?

Richard Tipping is an Australian artist and poet who continually blurs the boundaries between the verbal and the visual, creating amusing typographical art.

Tipping’s artistic breakthrough emerged through what he terms “interventions” – temporary alterations to traffic signs on the streets of Adelaide and Sydney during the late 1970s and early 1980s, using tape to change or obscure existing text. These guerrilla actions evolved into his signature “artsigns,” sophisticated works that appropriate the visual language of Australian road signage to create unexpected poetic encounters.

His methodology is both subversive and celebratory. Taking imagery, text, and forms from classic Australian road signs, Tipping cleverly subverts their familiar meanings, transforming mundane civic communication into direct and provocative statements. The works often address hierarchical structures and colonial legacies while engaging with the public language of the street through unexpected poetic interventions that extend our experience of public space into new, metaphorical territories.

Additional Information

Jump start – our ’roo shoots through
Richard Tipping

500cm & 420cm H
170 x 170 cm (sign), 75 x 114 cm (kangaroo)
aluminium and reflective on integrated poles,
edition of  3

Jump start combines road-sign language and vernacular speech, with absence as a tangible presence. The ’roo has jumped away, leaving its iconic outline, along with the ‘see you later’ meaning of the traditional phrase ‘ooroo’. The ’roo depiction has been carefully traced from the design of an Australian copper penny (1938–64).

The word ‘kangaroo’ derives from the Guugu Yimithirr word gangurru, referring to grey kangaroos. It was first recorded as ‘Kangooroo or Kanguru’ in 1770 by Lieutenant James Cook on the banks of the Endeavour River at the site of today’s Cooktown, when his ship the Endeavour was beached for almost seven weeks to repair damage sustained on the Great Barrier Reef. ‘Ooroo’ is a palindrome; however, kangooroos can’t walk backwards.

– Richard Tipping, 2016

Interested in this Sculpture or Artist?

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