Friday, 7 December 2012

Patricia Piccinini

The other day I was at one of the Haunch of Venison galleries and saw some of Patricia Piccinini's work. While it was not that relevant to my interests, it was definitely a good example of work that makes its points in a clean and simple way. Its intentions and effects are clear, and its execution is uncomplicated.


Just with colours and textures, and without complicated text and imagery, the work speaks volumes. It speaks about humans even where faces or any other recogniseable humanoid body parts are completely omitted. It raises questions about our disgust towards the way we are physically - our bodies' functions and form. It seems to question why we react a certain way to what should be seen as natural, and how strong that reaction is or is not.


While there does not appear to be a visual connection, her works which are more mechanical work together with her works that look more organic. How can something which looks so natural and human disgust us so much, and how can we find something endearing when it's clearly made of metal and rubber and makes no attempt to disguise that fact?