Patricia Piccinini: We Are Connected

Blossoming of Ideas

Credits: Patricia Piccinini, The Field, 2018 and (centre) The Bond, 2016. Installation view, ‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection’, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia. Photograph: Natasha Harth. Image courtesy of QAGOMA
 

In this gallery Patricia Piccinini presents a landscape of genetically modified, fleshy flowers that suggest fertility, birth and growth. These beautifully grotesque plants are powerful and hopeful symbols of life and its continuation on this planet.

A figure, placed within the landscape cradles a small creature.  Is this a new world where the borders between nature, different forms of life and different cultures are shifting?  Will these new relationships force us to reconsider our attitudes to nature, the body, and ourselves?

In this gallery Piccinini sets the scene for many of the ideas that visitors will encounter throughout the exhibition: difference, empathy and emotional connection across species, all of which brings into sharp focus the need for humankind to reframe itself as part of, rather than apart from, the natural world.

Blossoming of Ideas

Patricia Piccinini, The Bond (detail), 2016. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

In this gallery Patricia Piccinini presents a landscape of genetically modified, fleshy flowers that suggest fertility, birth and growth. These beautifully grotesque plants are powerful and hopeful symbols of life and its continuation on this planet.

A figure, placed within the landscape cradles a small creature.  Is this a new world where the borders between nature, different forms of life and different cultures are shifting?  Will these new relationships force us to reconsider our attitudes to nature, the body, and ourselves?

In this gallery Piccinini sets the scene for many of the ideas that visitors will encounter throughout the exhibition: difference, empathy and emotional connection across species, all of which brings into sharp focus the need for humankind to reframe itself as part of, rather than apart from, the natural world.

Welcome Guest

Patricia Piccinini, The Welcome Guest, 2011. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

In this lifelike scene, unknown creatures – that at a distance might seem uncanny and perhaps even frightening – turn out to be strange and fabulous beings exchanging warm smiles and close connections with human children. The caring interaction transforms what appears to be alien into something wonderful and familiar.

Childlike curiosity and playfulness encourage us all to step away from fear of the unknown and to embrace difference. Can you imagine being friends with one of Piccinini’s strange beings?

Bizarre Beauty

Unlike Hollywood’s often dystopian visions of science fiction, where strange aliens, monsters or robots pose dangerous threats to mankind, Piccinini celebrates everything that is ‘different’. Her hybrid creatures are not meant to cause discomfort or offence, instead they represent our shared existence with animals, plants and other organisms. They are also reminders of how interdependent we are with nature.

Piccinini’s hyperrealistic imagery is closely linked to her interest in beauty and the body. Contrasting materials such as silicone, fibreglass, resin and even human hair, create illusions of skin and wrinkles. With exquisite realness, these creatures tease our senses by balancing the grotesque and the compelling, the repulsive and the seductive. Piccinini engages the viewer in an emotional relationship with her works. Her creatures seem to belong to medical collections or to a cabinet of curiosities that tells a story about the world and its future.  However, Piccinini’s world is infused with an imagination and sensitivity that counteract the scientific gaze. With both humour and seriousness, she challenges cultural norms and stereotypes of ‘the body beautiful’.

Bizarre Beauty

Patricia Piccinini, Sanctuary (detail), 2018. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

Unlike Hollywood’s often dystopian visions of science fiction, where strange aliens, monsters or robots pose dangerous threats to mankind, Piccinini celebrates everything that is ‘different’. Her hybrid creatures are not meant to cause discomfort or offence, instead they represent our shared existence with animals, plants and other organisms. They are also reminders of how interdependent we are with nature.

Piccinini’s hyperrealistic imagery is closely linked to her interest in beauty and the body. Contrasting materials such as silicone, fibreglass, resin and even human hair, create illusions of skin and wrinkles. With exquisite realness, these creatures tease our senses by balancing the grotesque and the compelling, the repulsive and the seductive. Piccinini engages the viewer in an emotional relationship with her works. Her creatures seem to belong to medical collections or to a cabinet of curiosities that tells a story about the world and its future.  However, Piccinini’s world is infused with an imagination and sensitivity that counteract the scientific gaze. With both humour and seriousness, she challenges cultural norms and stereotypes of ‘the body beautiful’.

Bizarre Beauty

Patricia Piccinini, The Loafers, 2018. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

Unlike Hollywood’s often dystopian visions of science fiction, where strange aliens, monsters or robots pose dangerous threats to mankind, Piccinini celebrates everything that is ‘different’. Her hybrid creatures are not meant to cause discomfort or offence, instead they represent our shared existence with animals, plants and other organisms. They are also reminders of how interdependent we are with nature.

Piccinini’s hyperrealistic imagery is closely linked to her interest in beauty and the body. Contrasting materials such as silicone, fibreglass, resin and even human hair, create illusions of skin and wrinkles. With exquisite realness, these creatures tease our senses by balancing the grotesque and the compelling, the repulsive and the seductive. Piccinini engages the viewer in an emotional relationship with her works. Her creatures seem to belong to medical collections or to a cabinet of curiosities that tells a story about the world and its future.  However, Piccinini’s world is infused with an imagination and sensitivity that counteract the scientific gaze. With both humour and seriousness, she challenges cultural norms and stereotypes of ‘the body beautiful’.

Artificial Naturalness

Patricia Piccinini, The Comforter (detail), 2010. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange, Photo: Christian Redtenbacher

Technology has become an essential part of human life.

Today, advances in artificial intelligence and biotechnology have made it possible to create life in new ways. Organs and organisms can be produced in Petri dishes. Artificial limbs and electronic devices can be attached or inserted, into the human body to improve or extend life. Computers have exceeded the learning capacity of the human mind, while animals in the food industry are artificially bred and managed.

It is already difficult for us to define where the organic and the artificial worlds begin and end. Piccinini’s fleshy stem cells, mechanical organs and laboratory-produced animals blur the boundaries between the natural and the technological body creating a weird form of ‘techno-nature’.

Artificial Naturalness

Patricia Piccinini, Highlander, 2005. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

Technology has become an essential part of human life.

Today, advances in artificial intelligence and biotechnology have made it possible to create life in new ways. Organs and organisms can be produced in Petri dishes. Artificial limbs and electronic devices can be attached or inserted, into the human body to improve or extend life. Computers have exceeded the learning capacity of the human mind, while animals in the food industry are artificially bred and managed.

It is already difficult for us to define where the organic and the artificial worlds begin and end. Piccinini’s fleshy stem cells, mechanical organs and laboratory-produced animals blur the boundaries between the natural and the technological body creating a weird form of ‘techno-nature’.

Chimera Welfare

Patricia Piccinini, Prone (detail), 2011. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

Piccinini’s curious hybrid creatures are not part of a remote future. They are closer to reality than you might think. Such fascinating hybrid creatures would be termed ‘chimeras’, a name taken from a strange beast written about in Greek mythology that was said to be part lion, goat, and serpent.

Today such mythologies could become a reality – a new gene editing technique, known by the acronym CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat), has revolutionised cancer research and the treatment of hereditary diseases. The technique also opens up the possibility of combining human, animal, and plant genetics. While bio-ethical debates over the consequences of CRISPR for humanity are on-going, Piccinini turns her attention towards the chimeras themselves.

What are our responsibilities towards the things, or designs, we create? What will be their place in our ecosystem? Are they our workers, or are they our children?

Chimera Welfare

Patricia Piccinini, Young Family, 2002. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

Piccinini’s curious hybrid creatures are not part of a remote future. They are closer to reality than you might think. Such fascinating hybrid creatures would be termed ‘chimeras’, a name taken from a strange beast written about in Greek mythology that was said to be part lion, goat, and serpent.

Today such mythologies could become a reality – a new gene editing technique, known by the acronym CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat), has revolutionised cancer research and the treatment of hereditary diseases. The technique also opens up the possibility of combining human, animal, and plant genetics. While bio-ethical debates over the consequences of CRISPR for humanity are on-going, Piccinini turns her attention towards the chimeras themselves.

What are our responsibilities towards the things, or designs, we create? What will be their place in our ecosystem? Are they our workers, or are they our children?

Future Families

Patricia Piccinini, The Couple (detail), 2018. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

Seeds, pollination, hatching and suckling bodies – Piccinini’s universe is full of life. Her works lament the current loss of species and biodiversity, and at the same time, they pay homage to nature’s many different, and extraordinary forms of reproduction, caring and life-giving systems.

In this gallery we encounter motherly ‘eagle-men’ who have turned their bodies into nests to protect their fragile eggs; a strange creature with pouches running along its back, each providing a temporary home for a small, wombat-like creature, and lastly a couple, during a tender moment, having created their own nest-like safe space.

As humans we already share some genetic and social commonalities with other species. Piccinini’s new, imagined lifeforms are imbued with a sense of their own agency, not very different from our own.

Future Families

Patricia Piccinini, Eagle Egg Man (The Optimist), 2018. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

Seeds, pollination, hatching and suckling bodies – Piccinini’s universe is full of life. Her works lament the current loss of species and biodiversity, and at the same time, they pay homage to nature’s many different, and extraordinary forms of reproduction, caring and life-giving systems.

In this gallery we encounter motherly ‘eagle-men’ who have turned their bodies into nests to protect their fragile eggs; a strange creature with pouches running along its back, each providing a temporary home for a small, wombat-like creature, and lastly a couple, during a tender moment, having created their own nest-like safe space.

As humans we already share some genetic and social commonalities with other species. Piccinini’s new, imagined lifeforms are imbued with a sense of their own agency, not very different from our own.

Future Families

Patricia Piccinini, We Travel Together (film still), 2021. © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute for Cultural Exchange

Seeds, pollination, hatching and suckling bodies – Piccinini’s universe is full of life. Her works lament the current loss of species and biodiversity, and at the same time, they pay homage to nature’s many different, and extraordinary forms of reproduction, caring and life-giving systems.

In this gallery we encounter motherly ‘eagle-men’ who have turned their bodies into nests to protect their fragile eggs; a strange creature with pouches running along its back, each providing a temporary home for a small, wombat-like creature, and lastly a couple, during a tender moment, having created their own nest-like safe space.

As humans we already share some genetic and social commonalities with other species. Piccinini’s new, imagined lifeforms are imbued with a sense of their own agency, not very different from our own.

Interview with Patricia Piccinini