Patricia Piccinini : We Are Family

As the title of the Blog hints at, I’m very interested in the convergence of Machine and Human. Where Technology meets Biology.
Now, I know I’m not the first to do this. Indeed last year, I saw Shane Gehlert’s fascinating Cyber Kangaroo work on display at Broken Hill.
I’ve just returned from a mini-trip to Bendigo and Echuca. I drove up to Bendigo to see Patricia Piccinini’s exhibition “We Are Family”. I’ve previously seen her work at the National Gallery of Victoria when it first opened at Fed Square, plus heard her interviewed on Radio National last week.
It really was worth the trip. Whilst there are ‘only’ a handful of pieces on display, they are intriguing. The recent discussions on stem cell research – in context of human genetics – have given PP great inspiration. The results are three dimensional, realistic pieces of What If. They are identifiable as human (or at least organic), yet something tugs away underneath whispering “everything’s not right, look closer”.

The Young Family piece was inspired by recent human-pig genetic experiments. A glance shows a sow, on her side feeding her family. Look closer and she’s got a semi-human face, hands and feet. And eyebrows.
Still Life with Stem Sells has a young girl sitting on a rug. Instead of playing with dolls, she has blobs of rounded, flesh-coloured, organic matter. She’s quite happy amongst all of this.
Leather Landscape has an apparent First Contact between humans and intelligent meerkat-like creatures. The human is a toddler, with the message of mutual interest and fascination ringing loudly.
Up against the left hand side wall are two young boys. They are sharing a hand-held game console thing; which is on and making noises. This is Game Boys Advanced. Again, all seems normal. But duck down a bit and look closer; the boys are prematurely aged. Their skin is yellowed and wrinkled. Their teeth aren’t the best. This was inspired by what happened to Dolly, the cloned sheep.
There are other pieces, including a display of motorbike helmets for ‘alien’ (or very distorted human) heads and a strangely compelling video piece.
It’s at the Bendigo Art Gallery for a few more days. PP has a sample of We Are Family on her website.