The Art of Patricia Piccinini

Art is meant to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable.

Or something like that.

That saying, however badly I've paraphrased it, is what came to mind when I saw the above sculpture by Patricia Piccinini. 

Piccinini is an Australian artist who works with painting, sculpture, installations, and various other mediums. Much of her work appears to be a warning about genetic modification. The above work, titled "The Naturalist", evokes what I call a "unity of opposites."

At first I'm repulsed. This thing is unsettling in its appearance and a clear and cautionary message about messing with nature. Once I linger upon it a bit more, I start to think it's not so bad. Kinda cute even, in its own way. I look into its eyes and almost see another living being. I want to take care of it. Then I zoom out and take the animal in total. How would it move? Can it move? If not, what kind of life can it have? Why would we create this and what right do we have to do it?

Sounds like the questions we ask as technology advances. That is to say, questions we should be asking anyway. In fact, I find Piccinini's work somewhat reminiscent of the environmental warnings of artist, Alexis Rockman, whom I've profiled a few years back.

So head over to Piccinini's website and revel in all the weirdness and yes at times, feel disgusted by what you see. Just remember that may be the intended reaction as you sift through the fleshy creations, bulbous at times and sagittate at others. Just check out "Skywhale" below, a balloon she was commissioned to create for the city of Canberra (Oh come on. It's not like I'm asking you revisit "The Meat Tent.")

By Nick-D - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26017799

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