Artist: Alan James
Title: This Is Not A Sign
Material: Screen print on retroreflective film on aluminium
Edition: Limited edition of 100, labelled, number stamped, signed and dated
Dimensions (HxW): 90 x 120 cm 
Product Code: JAM-002
Shipment: Shipping cost is calculated during checkout.

This is the second text-based artwork by Sunshine Coast scribe Alan James. These works employ roadsign fabrication techniques to make unfamiliar statements and observations using a familiar medium. 

The works spring from a love of the iconography and vernacular of roadsigns—a desire first sparked by the work of Rosalie Gascoigne. They celebrate the visual and verbal elegance—or otherwise—of the humble roadsign. 

The Not Sign is made in Australia, to international traffic control specs. Being a roadsign, it’s weatherproof and safe to hang outside, and can be securely anchored to a wall or post.

Conceptually, these signs respond to what the author sees as an increasingly heartless, mindless, humourless world. They encourage us to think, care and smile a bit more. Or to chill out, wise up and lighten up a little. 

This is Not a Sign recalls René Magritte’s 1929 painting, La Trahison des Images (The Treachery of Images)—a painting of a pipe, which famously declared “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (This is not a pipe).

To paraphrase Monsieur Magritte, “Let me see you put that in my pipe and smoke it!”