Feature Article
Patricia Piccinini: Relativity
- at the Art Gallery of WA until 22 August, acclaimed Australian contemporary artist Patricia Piccinini challenges moral values in the brave new world of technology and biotechnology in the first major survey of her work in Western Australia.
It seems everyone who has seen Patricia Piccinini:Relativity at the Art Gallery of WA has an opinion on the meaning of her works. Responses range from repulsion to abject admiration of works which infer an unstoppable path to new hybrid beings genetically modified to serve humans. "There is no moral answer," says Patricia. "I just provide the question."
Patricia Piccinini is one of Australia's most acclaimed contemporary artists whose startling sculptures examine the connections between science and nature, art and the environment. Representing Australia in the 2003 Venice Biennale, she has also exhibited in countries around the world including Japan, United States, Peru and Spain. Audiences are drawn to the hyper reality of her figurative sculpture made possible by a clever use of silicone, fibreglass and paintstakingly injected human hair.
'Big Mother,' 2005, silicone, fibreglass, leather, human hair, 173 x 103 x 78cm installed, Ed #3 by Patricia Piccinini. Detached Cultural Organisation, Hobart. Photo Graham Baring.
In this first significant survey of her work in Western Australia, Piccinini was commissioned to create a new installation which responded to the architectural environment of the Art Gallery of WA. The result is Aloft 2010, an imposing installation hanging over the concourse of the Gallery. Aloft, a nest measuring 1290 x 1510 x 7500cm, made from felted human hair collected over three months from hairdressing salons in Melbourne, at first seems an ominous, primeval presence, until one notices a small, human child figure peering innocently over the top of the massive nest. Appearing cinematic in its concept, audiences must also view the work from the upper level of the Gallery where the owners of the nest, bursting with a sense of pregnancy and fertility, reside. Here, massive genetically modified pupae, their form inspired by witchetty grubs, coexist with a child, insignificant in relative size, yet the expected tension of fear and terror is unusually absent.
It is this uneasy coexistence which challenges viewers and invites dialogue about her work. Piccinini is fascinated by how we react to our own space being invaded by the very species we might genetically modify for our own use. Throughout the exhibition her 'beings' are presented sympathetically, as the future downtrodden. She asks where new nature belongs. Walking through the exhibition in the day prior to its opening, a hive of last- minute activity, Piccinini offered an insight into her work. "We have the scientific capacity to genetically modify nature, but it is currently benign. I look at the future and think these new species have rights too, and probably even culture."
'The Offering,' 2009 (2-3 editions), silicone, fox fur, New Zealand feral possum pelt, 15 x 20 x 28cm Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Haunch of Venison, New York, Byblos Art Gallery, Verona.
The exhibition begins with two casually placed boy figures leaning against the Gallery wall, playing nintendo, their caps hiding the intensity of their game. A closer look at their faces reveals a failure of biotechnology - two prematurely aged cloned children. "We think we can control technology, but can we? Will we love the failures of new technology as well as its success?"
Perhaps one of the most striking of over twenty significant projects in the exhibition is Big Mother, a scientifically modified human bred to serve a single function to the higher order of humans as a wet nurse. The fact that children feature heavily in her work in this exhibition could well be the influence of Patricia's own young children, aged two and five, but she insists this is merely a coincidence.
The Long Awaited continues the uneasy nurturing between human and genetically modified beings. Its form based on a dugong, the grandmotherly figure attracts real emotions from the child, and highlights Patricia's conviction that all life is beautiful.
The tactile nature of her work results in an overwhelming desire to explore its surface. For this very reason she has created several of The Offering, small-scale versions of the larger works, which visitors can touch to quell their curiosity.
'The Long Awaited,' 2008, silicone, fibreglass, human hair, plywood, leather, clothing, 92 x 151 x 81cm by Patricia Piccinini. Detached Cultural Organisation, Hobart. Photo: Graham Baring.
Works such as The Stags, (front cover) shift the focus of the exhibition to the concept of machinery as animals. The duelling Vespas with antlers displaying animal-like are perhaps not so far-fetched. "We talk to our computers, and we have a relationship with our car," says Patricia, "so why not have technology changed by nature?"
On the opening night of the exhibition Patricia made a point of thanking her studio artists responsible for what one can only imagine is excruciatingly painstaking work to bring the works to life. Visitors will notice a different feel to the exhibition space in comparison with other Art Gallery of WA exhibitions. Patricia's exhibition designer was brought to Perth to design the space specifically for the show, which also invades other areas outside the exhibition. Look out for tiny bugs which have invaded the late Dr Harold Schenberg display case in the concourse - he would have wholeheartedly approved!
Visit www.artgallery.wa.gov.au for more information.