Patricia Piccinini
VAULT looks at the work of Australian artist Patricia Piccinini, whose practice has long asked questions around practices of care in the context of technological advancement.
Image credit: Patricia Piccinini, The Pacifist, 2023, silicone, resin, hair, 35 x 19 x 25 cm, edition of 6. Photo: Andrew Curtis. Courtesy of the artist and Tolarno Galleries
The first exhibition I went to after the birth of my son was Through Love at TarraWarra Museum of Art in 2018. Through Love brought together the works of Patricia Piccinini and Joy Hester, tracing intimate connections between each of the artist’s works. Even though the engagement with bio-tech themes in Piccinini’s work was fascinating, the theme of maternal love was stronger; it flowed from Hester’s inky portraits where figures melted together to Piccinini’s gentle and tender hyper-real silicone sculptures, often depicting the care between mother and child. I met it with the reverence of the newly minted mother, my sleeping child strapped to my much-changed body, understanding love anew and appreciating how this was reflected in an exhibition devoted to human connection.
Five years later Piccinini is still invested in these connections and the way we, as humans (as animals), relate. Her latest exhibition Eye-blink Smile, which opened in September 2023 at Tolarno Galleries in Melbourne, includes vibrant drawings and bright glass sculptures. Eyes are everywhere.
A pair of cat eyes belonging to Noodle, the cat Piccinini and her family adopted during the Covid-19 lockdowns, inspired this latest work. While connecting with Noodle, she witnessed his slow eye-blink which – in cat language – is a kind of feline smile. “I was really intrigued. And I found myself mirroring him and doing it back to him. And then I found myself doing it to other people in my family. And I just thought, ‘Oh, I’ve adopted a cat way of relating to the world,’” Piccinini explains.
This inter-species adaptation and communication interested the artist, who ... Subscribe to read this article in full
