Birds, Birds, Birds by Monte Lupo Arts, 2026

Birds Birds Birds audio description, duration 7 minutes

In the Logan Art Gallery courtyard, there is a permanent installation of handmade ceramic artworks featuring local native birds. The installation comprises 5 mosaic panels along the courtyard walls and a series of tactile objects, including one sculpture, 3 round seats and a birdbath. The title of this artwork is Birds, Birds, Birds. The designs are by the artist Peter Hughes. The Monte Lupo Arts team created the artworks in 2026. Please note, the layout of the courtyard and objects within it may change and you are welcome to gently touch the artworks.

Entering the courtyard through the doorway off the hall to the workshop space, a freestanding sculpture of a bird is directly to your left in a garden bed. It is a sculpture of a female red-tailed black cockatoo, much larger than life size, perched on a narrow wooden stump that has red gum flowers and green leaves. The sculpture measures 168 centimetres high, 40 centimetres wide and 55 centimetres deep. It is made of clay and is highly detailed and textured, with the feathers and flowers protruding. The cockatoo faces towards the courtyard in an upright position with her wings closed. She has black plumage with yellow spots on her head and upper body and a thin yellow edge on the feathers that cross her chest in a scallop shape. The tail feathers are long and red and yellow in colour with horizontal black stripes. The feathers on her head radiate out from small to large around her shiny black eyes. The outermost feathers on top of her head poke upwards and her beak is large and curved downwards.

Straight ahead are 4 of the 5 mosaic mural panels, mounted on the concrete columns between the white courtyard fence palings. Each panel measures 181 centimetres high and varies in width from 41 to 81 centimetres. A mosaic is an artwork created from many individual ceramic pieces fitted closely together. Each of the 5 panels features a different bird and plant species carved from flat slabs of clay, with highly textured and detailed surfaces. Surrounding the featured bird and plant are small, flat, circle-shaped tiles in varying sizes. The tiles are mottled bright blue with dark grey grout filling the gaps between them. Together these smooth tiles, with the raised textured forms and rough grout create a strong contrast in texture.

Starting from left to right the first panel depicts a crimson rosella perched on a branch facing to the left with its wings closed. It is a vibrant red bird with bright blue tail feathers and blue on its cheek and outer wing. There are small white flowers and green leaves above and below it. The next panel shows a pied currawong perched on a branch, facing forwards, its head turned to the right. It is a black bird with a white band across the top and bottom of its tail feathers. There are thick branches above and below it with small red gum flowers. Continuing to the right is a sea eagle in a similar pose to the pied currawong. It is a white bird with long dark grey wings, large claws, and a long-hooked beak. There are branches above and below it with small round yellow flowers and large detailed leaves. The fourth panel consists of 3 magpies perched with wings closed at different points along a forked central branch. They are a black and white bird with a long pointy white beak with a black tip. There are multiple branches around them with large green leaves, red flowers, and small yellow flowers.

The fifth and final mosaic panel is the largest and is installed against the gallery wall on the right side of the courtyard. At its highest point it is 1.4 metres and it is 2 metres wide. It depicts the upper half of a sulphur-crested cockatoo facing to the left. It is a white bird with tall yellow feathers, called a crest, on top of its head. The panel has sculpted edges across the top, following the shape of the large green pointed leaves and the bird’s spiky crest.

Amongst the courtyard garden, there are 3 round mosaic seats and a bird bath. Like the panels, they each show one bird and plant species carved from clay surrounded by the flat blue circle-shaped tiles and a light grey grout between. The seats are all approximately 50 centimetres high and 40 centimetres wide. The seats feature red-capped robins with red gum flowers, magpies and a banksia, and honeyeaters and red gum flowers. The bird bath is 96 centimetres high and 53 centimetres wide. There are red flowers and green leaves inside the round bowl and down the stand and kookaburras around the base.

Peter Hughes is a Logan-based artist and a longstanding member of the Brisbane Outsider Artists and a Monte Lupo artist. Monte Lupo was established by the organisation Multicap in 1991 as a social enterprise creating meaningful careers for artists with disability. Monte Lupo encompasses an art studio and gallery and offers art workshops to the public. For Hughes, painting enables him to communicate and process his experiences, thoughts and feelings. His career highlights include having artwork acquired by the Museum of Everything, winning the Arts Access Australia Art Prize, and showing work as part of The Soft Knife at Casula Powerhouse alongside a major exhibition of Carol Jerrem’s photographic work from the National Gallery of Australia.

This artwork was commissioned by Logan City Council.

Image credit: Installation of Birds, Bird, Bird mosaics, 2026 by Monte Lupo Arts in the Logan Art Gallery Courtyard. Commissioned by Logan City Council as part of the Where do I belong? project.