Patricia Piccinini: Inter-natural
Overview

In her second solo exhibition at Hosfelt Gallery, Patricia Piccinini presents an immersive installation of hyper-realistic sculptures probing the increasingly permeable boundaries of humanness.

 

For more than two decades, Piccinini has explored the potentialities—both liberating and threatening—inherent in our advancing capabilities in genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. Her meticulously-crafted sculptures envision a co-mingling of animal, plant, machine and human, questioning the ‘otherness’ of creatures, cyber-forms, and humans who don’t resemble ‘the norm.’ These imagined beings are nearly possible, embodying and reflecting the complex ethical issues of our times.

 

Connection and empathy are at the heart of Piccinini’s practice. The creatures she envisions share a deep emotional bond in a trans-species, posthuman version of love and relational ethics. In her catalog essay for Piccinini’s enormous survey exhibition, Curious Affection, at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Rosi Braidotti states, “We need to rethink the human, the non-human, the inhuman, the trans- and post-human in an era defined both as the fourth industrial revolution and the sixth extinction… Piccinini challenges us to review our preconceived ideas and socially enforced relationships with the otherwise embodied.”

 

Patricia Piccinini was born in Sierra Leone in 1965 and currently resides in Melbourne. She was chosen to represent Australia in the 2003 Venice Biennale and her work has been the subject of numerous solo museum exhibitions worldwide. This year the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane presented a major solo exhibition of her work, and her 2016 solo museum exhibition in Brazil had the second highest attendance record of any global exhibition that year.

Works
  • Sculpture of two male and female hybrid creatures cuddling in a bed. Their bodies are mostly covered by a sheet. Creatures have gorilla-like faces, claws, and human hair and skin.
    Patricia Piccinini
    The Couple, 2018
    silicone, fiberglass, human hair, found objects
    installed dimensions variable 16 1/2 x 66 1/8 x 25 1/2 in/42 x 168 x 65 cm
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  • Pencil drawing of hummingbird in flight with its beak attached to a strand of coiled hair that appears to be sprouting from a human’s groin area.
    Patricia Piccinini
    Figure and Hummingbird, 2011
    graphite on paper
    22 1/4 x 30 in
    56.5 x 76.2 cm
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  • Sculpture of squatting anthropomorphic creature with human skin, webbed feet, rodent-like teeth and voluminous hair. Creature rests its head on its hand and gazes into the distance. From its groin area emerges an oversized, hairy tongue.
    Patricia Piccinini
    The Builder, 2018
    silicone, fiberglass, hair
    21 1/4 x 15 3/8 x 28 3/8 in
    54 x 39.1 x 72.1 cm
  • A garden of tan and black hairy bulbs are set in front of a dripping red shape. Above the red paint is a hairy braided arc.
    Patricia Piccinini
    Meditations on the continuum of vitality (garden), 2014
    ink and gouache on paper
    22 1/2 x 30 1/4 in
    57.1 x 76.8 cm
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  • Nestled into the cocoon of a yellow curved shape is a red and black plant-like form. Stemming from the plant are eight tan hairy pods. Resting near the bottom of the yellow form at two black and orange shapes that resemble the pods.
    Patricia Piccinini
    Metaflora (eight pods), 2014
    ink and gouache on paper
    22 1/2 x 30 1/4 in
    57.1 x 76.8 cm
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  • Braided yellow and black plant-like shape that has long roots and three branches At the end of each branch there is a small tan and black lobe with a red hood. The plant is outlined by bright blue and red thick lines.
    Patricia Piccinini
    Metaflora (three lobes), 2014
    ink and gouache on paper
    22 1/2 x 30 1/4 in
    57.1 x 76.8 cm
    Inquire
  • Bronze reflective rounded sculpture that does not appear to be a human or animal form but seems to rest on the tip of a penis.
    Patricia Piccinini
    A Deeply Held Breath, 2009
    bronze
    15 x 21 5/8 x 21 1/4 in
    38.1 x 54.9 x 54 cm
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  • Sculpture of woman in blue dress and boots holding hybrid creature. Creature has human skin, pig ears, and a geometric scaled back. It has many human hands and feet and is curled up in the woman’s arms.
    Patricia Piccinini
    The Bond, 2016
    silicone, fiberglass, human hair, clothing
    63 3/4 x 22 1/8 x 19 3/4 inches/162 x 56 x 50 cm
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  • Sculpture of girl in blue dress seated on green chair in kneeled position with hands in its lap. On girl’s left shoulder is sculpture of owl-like creature with one wing outstretched to protect the girl’s head.
    Patricia Piccinini
    Unfurled, 2017
    silicone, fiberglass, human hair, Australian masked owl, found objects
    48 x 35 1/8 x 31 1/2 inches/108 x 89 x 80 cm
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  • Sculpture of two small hybrid creatures holding each other close. Their faces are like baby monkeys but they have the hands of humans, blonde hair and speckled human-like skin. Their bodies are wrinkled and their backs are like soles of boots.
    Patricia Piccinini
    The Loafers, 2018
    fiberglass, silicone, hair
    10 5/8 x 10 3/8 x 9 7/8 in/27 x 26.5 x 25 cm
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