DATSUN TRAN: About this show....

"For the last 2 years, my work has been about exploring the bird as a symbol. This has taken my art to places all over the world including London, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Netherlands and all over Australia.

My art is influenced by every facet of my life. Just as I have worked in many creative fields, my art is a product of what I see, the music I listen to, the books I read and what I learn.

I started making my birds as an object I could stick up in the streets and alleys of Melbourne. I wanted to give people little unexpected surprises, something that would get their attention and make them smile. Being a city dweller my whole life, I know how the routine can wear you down, but I also know how a little street art that you see, poem that you read or good busker can break that routine, and make you see your environment in a different way.

I think the bird is such a strong symbol, it has a transcendent quality that lifts people from their lower self to their higher self, from material world to the spiritual world. I’m asked quite often whether the birds are sculptures or paintings. I don’t feel the need to say that they are one or the other. Much like actual birds, existing in the spheres of land and air, they exist somewhere in between, or both.

In between painting my birds, I started exploring other animals, so when Gomersal invited me to have an exhibition as part of the SALA Festival, I thought this was my chance to exhibit the art that I had been doing on the side for the past 2 years. The art in this show; 'Menagerie' is a celebration of our wild side, our uninhibited and free side, the part of us that I feel is hidden way too much and is too rule bound."