Primary and secondary school art teachers are invited to meet Henri in NorthSite's Main gallery during the second day of the installation of Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection on Tour for a behind-the-scenes look and discussion while the exhibition is under construction.

Image above: Patricia Piccinini, Australia VIC b.1965, Teenage Metamorphosis 2017 , Silicone, fibreglass, human hair, found objects / 25 x 137 x 75cm

Purchased 2018 Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

'Teenage Metamorphosis' 2017 makes a playful literary reference to Franz Kafka’s best-known short story The Metamorphosis. As fantastic and future minded as Piccinini’s works often appear, many of the underlying scenarios are in fact inspired by her own experiences, and in this instance she draws not only on her own reading, but on her son’s transformation from a child to a young adult. That said, Piccinini also courts ambiguity and multiple readings, as this makes for an enigmatic experience and thoughtful engagement. In this work, the viewer is unsure if the metamorphosis referred to in the title is that of the young man’s physical maturation, a humorous nod to his intellectual awakening through cultural content, or the obvious genetic transformation that he has undergone.

Patricia Piccinini (b.1965) invites audiences to think about their place in a world where advances in biotechnology and digital technologies blur the lines between human, nature and the artificial world. The artist’s fascination with these boundaries and relationships led The New York Times to describe her creations as ‘sculptures of life forms that don’t exist’ – her lifelike hybrid creatures seamlessly blend human, animal and machine elements to reveal life forms that are extraordinarily familiar.

Piccinini said, ‘I am interested in relations: the relationship between the artificial and the natural, between humans and the environment. The relationships between beings, within families and between strangers. And the relationship between the audience and the artwork.’

Influenced by science, nature, Surrealism and the unconscious, Piccinini’s collisions of forms are sometimes startling but rarely fearsome. While her artwork explores the implications of new technological developments, her fantastic creations also engage audiences on an emotional level, eliciting empathy and challenging conventional notions of beauty, perfection and ideal forms.

Piccinini said, ‘over the years, I have built up a sort of alternative world that exists just beyond the real world we live in. It is strange, but familiar at the same time. It exists as moments, objects and images that overlap with the real world in the gallery space.’

‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection on Tour’ is a touring exhibition developed by the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.

Image above: Patricia Piccinini, Australia VIC b. 1965, Artist in her Melbourne studio

Photograph: Phoebe Powell

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

PATRICIA PICCININI (B. 1965, SIERRA LEONE. LIVES AND WORKS IN AUSTRALIA.)

Patricia Piccinini was born in Sierra Leone in 1965 and grew up in Australia. The Melbourne-based artist represented Australia in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 with We Are Family, an exhibition that also toured to Tokyo and Bendigo. Her other solo museum surveys have included Com Ciência, CCBB Sao Paulo in 2015, touring to CCB Brasilia, CCBB Rio de Janeiro, and CCBB Belo Horizonte in 2016; Life Clings Closest, Cairns Art Gallery (2019); The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030-2100, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Russia (2019); Consciousness: a retrospective, KIBLA PORTAL, Maribor, Slovenia (2017); Relativity, Galway International Art Festival (2015); Hold Me Close To Your Heart, Arter Space For Art, Istanbul (2011); Once Upon a Time, Art Gallery of South Australia (2011); Relativity, Art Gallery of Western Australia (2010); Evolution at Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (2009); (tiernas) Criaturas/(tender) creatures at Artrium, Vitoria-Gasteriz (Spain, 2007); Hug: Recent Works by Patricia Piccinini, Frye Museum, Seattle, and Des Moines Art Centre, Des Moines (USA, 2007); In Another Life, Wellington City Gallery, Wellington (NZ, 2006); Call of the Wild, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney (2002); and Retrospectology, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2002) and more.

In 2014, Piccinini was awarded the Melbourne Art Foundation Visual Arts Award and in 2016 she received a Doctor of Visual and Perming Arts (Honora Causa) from the Victorian College of the Arts.

‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection’ exhibited at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) from 25 March until 5 August 2018. The touring exhibition invites visitors to over 6 galleries across regional Queensland to experience the artist’s work from 30 May 2020 until late February 2022.