Artist’s impression of “Steve” the enormous homage to the Ibis.
There have been unbridled scenes of mass elation in Surry Hills after council confirmed plans to build a 30 foot high statue of an Ibis in Shannon Reserve on Crown Street.
The Ibis is widely recognised the icon of Sydney.
A large group gathered this week, surrounding the bin where the installation is to be placed. Many held hands in quiet reverence for a much loved emblem of the city.
The idea for the installation was from local man banque Bronco Djura, himself a garbologist. “It’s a survivor. A toiler. It accepts its lot in life and gets on with it. No one knows that better than me.”
In 4 weeks the groundswell of support was undeniable with an online petition featuring over 217,000 signatures.
Submissions from artists for creating the work were in the hundreds. Winner, local artist Perry Haddock stated that the installation is to be made out of 100% recycled garbage. Not unlike the DNA of the bird itself.
Many see the move as the Ibis finally getting the credit it deserves.
“It’s a filthy thankless task but someone’s got to do it. The Ibis does it. It doesn’t ask for thanks. Well guess what? It’s time to thank the ibis.”
Urban Ecologist Professor Pat Jarvis from Sydney University has just completed a 22 year study into the Ibis, “Far from deriding and ridiculing the bird we should embrace the Sydney’s ibis as an essential part of the urban ecosystem. Without it we would be overwhelmed with rubbish. They are effectively our mobile garbage bins. We should be grateful for them and celebrate them. Sure it’s a bin chicken. But it’s our bin chicken.”
This comes amid City of Sydney’s plans for an “Adopt an Ibis” program.
“I would totes adopt an Iby, cause you could like, just chuck your garbage on the floor and it’d clean it up for you” said an excitable Georgie Murch, a social worker from Bourke Street.
The widespread acceptance of the Ibis statue comes at a welcome time for the council after speculation intensified recently that the much maligned Cloud statue was in fact to be funded by Apple to promote iCloud as an insidious piece of marketing by the global tech giant.
Opposition to the cloud statue was fierce. Giving fuel to the many opponents of Clover Moore with the rumour of commercial involvement all but confirmed after Clover Moore herself was spotted taking a selfie with an Apple iPhone X and uploading it to the Cloud.
And then of course there was the controversy surrounding the infamous bronze bird statues after the birds mysteriously began defecating all over Sydney. The council was forced to clean up the mess at a cost of $322,000 to taxpayers. Still no one is closer to understanding why the bronze birds have to this day continued defecating. It may be that the birds themselves have become self aware.
And it seems when it comes to statues the council is plagued with controversy with news breaking in advertising circles that Ibis Hotels Group are set to embrace the bird as their advertising icon, setting tongues wagging that the whole project is to be funded by the hotel chain.
The Surry Hills Times understands, from B&T: “Hotel Ibis is set to release its latest advertising campaign featuring actual Ibis birds wandering amongst garbage strewn throughout its hotel lobbies.
The campaign embraces the gritty urban landscape that the Ibis inhabits.
Michael Raso, head strategist and creative lead of strategy consultants ‘Scarves ‘n’ Insights’. “It is a not just a campaign, it is a way of life, inspired by the very homeless, the vagrants, the crack whores that make this city so unique.”
Sydney City Council categorically denies any corporate involve run from Ibis hotels group in the ibis statue Clover Moore’s office was unavailable for comment.
