Patricia Piccinini has been selected to represent Australia at the 50th Biennale of Venice in 2003.
Her exhibition, We Are Family, will explore the changing relationship between what is considered natural and what is considered artificial. Piccinini's strange and lovable life-forms will transform the Australian Pavilion into a home of the future.
A 'family' of new and recent sculptures will live in the Australian Pavilion, among them young cloned boys, who on closer inspection show signs of old age grey hairs, age-spots and wrinkles (Gameboys Advanced); a litter of pups that is oddly human (The Young Family); and a realistic young girl caring for a group of strange embryonic lumps (Still Life with Stem Cells).
Piccinini uses plastic, paint and computer pixels to mimic the generative potential of biological substances such as stem cells. The resulting figures are deeply ambivalent - sometimes odd or ugly, but always worthy of care, attention and love.
Piccinini's works animate the promise and the perils of the runaway scientific developments that pervade our time. Her art embodies our dreams - dreams of perfect children, of perfect health, of life disease-free, and articulates the value of difference and uncertainty in human life.
Her work brings a deeply personal perspective to current ethical debates on medical intervention: What constitutes a human being? Where does one species end and the other begin? Who takes responsibility for the life they create? Are some lives worth more than others?
With a bold body of work behind her 36-year-old Piccinini has a fast growing reputation as one of Australia's most exciting young artists. She has exhibited widely overseas and in Australia with solo exhibitions at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Japan, the Centro de Artes Visuales in Lima, Peru, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Her work has been shown in the Berlin and Gwang'ju Biennales and in Song of the Earth, Kassel. In 2002 Piccinini participated in the Biennale of Sydney, Heterosis at the Conde Duque in Spain, the Liverpool Biennale, the opening exhibition of the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art and a survey at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne.
Linda Michael will curate the exhibition of Piccinini's work for Venice in 2003. Senior Curator at Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Michael was previously at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney. She has worked extensively with Piccinini, and included her work in MCA exhibitions Photography is Dead! Long Live Photography! in 1996 and Natural Selection in 1997, and organised her participation in Song of the Earth, Kassel, Germany.
Victoria Lynn will represent the Venice exhibition as the Australian commissioner. Formerly curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Lynn is Chair of the Visual Arts/Crafts Board, Australia Council, and Director of Creative Development, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne.
We are Family opens at the Venice Biennale from mid June to late October 2003. The Australia Council, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body, has managed and funded a long history of Australian representation in the Biennale and owns the Australian Pavilion in Venice. Australia's participation at the 50th Venice Biennale is project managed by Global Art Projects.
For information and the latest news on Patricia Piccinini, go to her comprehensive website: www.patriciapiccinini.net
For further information, images or to arrange an interview please contact:
Jane Silversmith, Australia Council on +61 2 9215 9099, or