Sculptures both macabre and moving

IN a world of GMO crops, cell-based meat and designer babies, Patricia Piccinini’s sculptural art shouldn’t seem all that strange to us. But they do look surreal. An orangutan mother nursing a human child. A girl surrounded by mushroom-headed bats. A child playing with a creature with long claws. A human mother cradling a chimerical baby.  

At first, they appear like scenes from a cult horror or sci-fi movie, in which terrifying creatures from outer space invade earth and take over human bodies, turning us into waddling mutants. But one quickly realises Piccinini’s vision isn’t as nightmarish as these.

Instead, she is imagining a world where humans live side by side peacefully with clones, cyborgs, human-animal hybrids and genetically-modified creatures. Her dioramas of home life are sweet, gentle and touching. She’s appealing to us to open our hearts instead of giving in to our fears.