So familiar and yet strange. Bizarre and cuddly at the same time. Kunsthal Rotterdam presents the first major solo exhibition of Australian artist Patricia Piccinini (1965) in the Netherlands. The audience comes face to face with hybrid creatures that appear to be a mix of humans and animals; hairy, fragile creatures embracing each other; a vast field where you wander among thousands of fleshy flowers and mutated men hatching eggs. In a hyper-realistic way – with materials such as silicone and human hair – Piccinini creates almost lifelike, yet alienating sculptures. Young and old will be fascinated by this exhibition of Piccinini’s surrealistic world. Her sculptures will move you in profound ways.
Piccinini creates futuristic stories in a parallel universe in which she explores the possibilities of a future in which people, nature and technology can exist in harmony. She uses art and science to envision a shared future, by creating large-scale, immersive installations, such as The Field with three thousand ‘flowers’ that resemble animals, carnivorous plants and human reproductive organs. There are also intimate images such as Sanctuary (2018) in which two wrinkled, bonobo-like people embrace. With her hyper-realistic sculptures, video work and installations, she raises questions such as: what does it mean to be human? Could I take care of a creature that doesn’t look like me? Can we replace extinct animal species with cyborgs?
Until 4 June
Kunsthal Rotterdam
www.kunsthal.nl