How can art and science be used to imagine a shared future?

Patricia Piccinini Writing Competition How can art and science be used to imagine a shared future? Ask the kids. They know how to do it. Get them early, before they’re taught that science and art are in conflict. That’s wrong. Art and science are united by creativity. In art, it’s obvious where people use their…

Story of a Maker

Patricia Piccinini Writing Competition I thought I was too old to go through all the trouble. I didn’t really believe that changes would affect me anyway. At that age, with that and skin, it is not all that easy to grow different over night. It so happened that I was developing a drinking habit for…

Mary Shelley and Patricia Piccinini’s kinship with the monstrous

We consider the legacy of Mary Shelley’s masterwork and the ‘monster’ in literature, art, and popular culture, as we reveal how art and literature help us to explore our fascination with scientific intervention and nature. How real are these imaginary beings and worlds, and why are these creations brought into existence – either through Shelley’s…

Watch as we install Patricia Piccinini’s inflatable Pneutopia

Patricia Piccinini loves the way an exhibition can change the space it occupies, that a gallery can be transformed by the work it contains. By introducing Pneutopia 2018, a giant inflatable blooming from the roof of a garden shed, she has completely disrupted the sight lines of the Gallery of Modern Art’s (GOMA) long gallery during…

The realities of our future: Robotics, biotechnology and Patricia Piccinini

Known for her imaginative, yet strangely familiar, lifelike hybrid creatures, Patricia Piccinini invites us to think about our place in a world where advances in biotechnology and digital technologies are challenging the boundaries of humanity. Piccinini’s fantastic hybrid beings invite us to find beauty in a world not ruled by notions of perfection. The Gallery’s…

Patricia Piccinini gives us an insight into studio life

In preparation for the exhibition ‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection‘, it was necessary to make progress visits to Piccinini’s studio in Melbourne to keep pace with her immense creative output. With so much to say about her work, and so many interesting people responsible for a giddying array of techniques, it was important that we record…