Patricia Piccinini’s artwork certainly sparks questions.
What is that thing, a monkey?
Are those real?
What is that creature doing to that poor woman’s face?
That’s the spell Piccinini’s fantastic art work has, and that spell will surely take over audiences who view her exhibit “Hug: Recent Work by Patricia Piccinini” which is on display at the Frye Museum through Jan. 6. The artist will give a lecture at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Frye, 704 Terry Ave., Seattle. Admission is free.
Piccinini produces work that has been called hyper-realistic sculptures of “customized life forms.” Her sculptures, photographs and video pieces “examine the precarious relationships among animals, nature, science and technology,” according to press materials accompanying this exhibit.
Piccinini is inspired by the gray area between man’s need for science and his manipulation of that technology. She challenges her viewers to try to handle the results of those experiments.
For instance, in one piece, Piccinini sets the scene at a construction site. There, on top of an unfinished building, are a pod of monkey-like creatures, one doing a staredown with one of the workers. The piece is called “Encroachment (A typical family group with an infant have infested this construction site).”
There’s another piece called “The Embrace.” The piece, made from silicone, fiberglass, leather, plywood, clothing and human hair, is of a woman standing but who has momentarily lost her balance somewhat because it appears a strange hairless creature with big bug eyes has just jumped onto her and attached itself to her face.
Piccinini’s comments about her work reveal that the creatures she has created don’t actually exist, but they certainly could.
“In fact, perhaps I create them because they should,” the Australian artist said in a prepared statement. “The ideas, the context, the technologies required for their existence is certainly already part of our world; genetic engineering, biotechnology, stem-cell research, cloning, bioelectronics are all part of everyday life for us. The possibilities for my creations are already amongst us, and before too long the things themselves could turn up unannounced, without our ever having had the opportunity to wonder how much we want them.”
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