patricia piccinini: relativity

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. Audiences are drawn to Piccinini’s sculptures because they appear so real, yet they are creatures of the artist’s imagination developed to consider a strange new world of artificial or mutant beings derived from experimental biotechnology.

Created using a combination of materials such as silicone, fibreglass and human hair, Piccinini’s sculptures are familiar yet fantastical in their depiction of possible future species and their interaction with human beings. Often confronting yet endearingly vulnerable, her sculptures give form to her fascination with the relationship between the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’ while asserting the power of social relationships, love and communication. Piccinini’s work is fundamentally about the human condition, despite the quasi-human appearance of her sculptures. The artist sees them as ‘beautiful rather than grotesque, miraculous rather than freakish’.

Patricia Piccinini: RELATIVITY is the first major survey of the artist’s sculptural works in Western Australia. It includes over 20 significant projects and a new installation which has been created for the Gallery’s concourse, called Aloft 2010 which responds to the architectural environment of the Gallery.

Piccinini represented Australia at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 and has had solo exhibitions in Japan, the United States, Peru and Spain and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery.

Reviews

TheWest.com.au | Mutants invade Perth, Stephen Bevis, The West Australian, 30 April 2010.

TheWest.com.au | Creature Feature, Stephen Bevis, The West Australian, 14 April 2010.

PerthNow.com.au | Freaks of nature, Maria Noakes, in STE, 16 April 2010.

Perth.CitySearch.com.au | Patricia Piccinini: Relativity - Editorial Review.

educational interpretive resource

An interpretive resource designed for teachers and others to use in conjunction with a visit to the Patricia Piccinini: RELATIVITY exhibition is availabe for downloading.

Exhibition Catalogue

Front cover

Patricia Piccinini
The Long Awaited 2008 (detail)
silicone, fibreglass, human hair, plywood, leather, clothing
92 x 152 x 80cm
Detached Cultural Organisation, Hobart
Photo: Graham Baring

Price: $15

ISBN: 978-0-9806268-5-8

© 2010 Art Gallery of Western Australia

Pages: 64
Publication Year: 2010

See also

• Public Tours
• Talks & Workshops
• What's On
• Getting Here
• Current Exhibitions
• Future Exhibitions

Download

• Education Interpretive Resource
• Media Release

State Art Collection Themed exhibitions

• Body - from 21 November 2009
• Built - from 7 November 2009
• Home - ongoing
• Presence - ongoing
• Mapping - ongoing
• Material Gesture - ongoing

Patricia Piccinini
The Long Awaited 2008 (detail)
silicone, fibreglass, human hair, plywood, leather, clothing
92 x 152 x 80cm
Detached Cultural Organisation, Hobart
Photo: Graham Baring

Patricia Piccinini
The Stags 2008
fibreglass, automative paint, leather, steel, plastic, tyres ed. 1/3

196 x 224 x 167cm (installed, variable)

Purchased 2009 with funds from the Estate of Lawrence F. King in memory of the late Mr and Mrs S.W. King through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation and the Queensland Government's Gallery of Modern Art Acquistions Fund

Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Photo: Graham Baring

Patricia Piccinini

The Strength of One Arm (with Canadian Mountain Goat) 2009
silicone, fibreglass, human hair, clothing, Canadian Mountain Goat 180 x 154 x 56 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP

Photo: Graham Baring

Patricia Piccinini

The Embrace 2005
silicone, fibreglass, leather, plywood,
human hair, clothing,

variable dimensions

Photo: Guy Robinson

Private Collection