STEVEN FIRMAN
A Bird In The Hand
4 March – 11 April

A Bird in the Hand is an exhibition of painting and screen prints by local artist Steven Firman.

Whilst the paintings are decorative in nature, for the artist the title suggests something more political. A captive bird, one ‘in the hand’, is worth two of those ‘in the bush’. Those of us living in the hills, on the fringe of the suburbs, sometimes have a love hate relationship with our fauna. Whilst we admire their beauty, when cockatoos eat our picket fences and cedar windowsills some demand a cull of the ‘pests’.

Our native parks have for decades encouraged tourist feeding the birds – in the hand – making our picnic spots a must see tourist destination. Now there is a ban on this. The artist aims to raise some questions surrounding this issue – who are the pests? The local fauna, or humans? How much government control do we need around this issue? Is a bird in the bush actually worth two in the hand?