Ian Hubbard

About the work

The design is kept simple using the limited palette of colours, iconography and fonts on road signs.  Decals are added.  Like road signs, the message is simple and can be understood at the speed of life – 100 kph.  Fauna are represented upside down on the roadkill to extinction.

This koala is not cute and cuddly.  It’s pissed off with humanity’s stupidity.   Our over-exploitation of Mother Nature to the detriment of every living creature and ecosystem.  It’s beyond comprehension that within 250 years of colonising this continent we’ve pushed so much wildlife to extinction including the iconic national symbol – the Koala.  The Angry Koala series are meant to be clear warning signs.

 

1. Arse on Fire – No Habitat Ecosystem Collapse (2022)
2. Arse on Fire – Unnatural Disaster Climate Emergency (2022)
3. Angry Koala – I’m Stuffed So Are You Mass Extinction (2021)

Photos by Heeseon Jung

About the artist

IAN HUBBARD lives between Canberra and the NSW South Coast.  Much of his work has been conveyed through found objects and readily available materials.  Having grown up in inner city Melbourne he was inspired by the creative explosion of the anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment punk culture.  This often involved the stealing, recycling and reinvention of ideas, music and objects.  He has also long been interested in the power of political statements expressed by street artists and political propagandists.  During a trip to Italy, he was particularly impressed by the freshness and ingenuity of reworked street signs, their vibrant colours and simple monotext recruited by artists to inject amusing, disquieting or even sinister meanings beyond the original intent.

Having experienced firsthand the incredible losses of Black Summer, Ian chooses the base medium of road signs which caution of upcoming driving hazards but which have been damaged by bushfires.  Distorting or reformatting the simple visual images and symbols through use of reflective materials, decals and cutouts of figures, he adds meaning to communicate powerful and far more crucial warnings about climate change and ecosystem collapse.  He has also recently designed and manufactured signs which change our understanding of familiar icons such as the koala.  [Accepts private commissions.]