She's not a monster; no, she looks like a very accepting mom as she lies sow-like, patiently suckling her offspring from teats around her stomach. Her wrinkly pinkish skin seems downright human, even to its vestigial hairs. So do her hands and feet. It's her face - except for brooding humanoid eyes with brows - that really marks her as, well, different. There are fleshy ears that start at the top of her nearly bald head and flop down like long tongues, a flattened ape-ish nose and a cowlike muzzle with a wide moo-ey mouth.
Created from silicon by Patricia Piccinini, an Australian artist, this transgenic, or hybrid animal-human, family was initially suggested by a DNA strand named SO1 or "Synthetic Organism 1," developed from inorganic materials in a lab at the University of Texas. Struck by the way that medical and scientific research is making flesh more subject to human control, Ms. Piccinini set out to explore the question of what that could eventually mean. "The Young Family," as her tableau is called, is an imagined result.
I just went to this show, and it's well worth checking out, especially the Queen Mud (Sofi-Siden) exhibit. "QM, I think They Call her QM" is just a small part of this multi-media show, which is technically not part of the "Becoming Animal" exhibit.
The other shows at MassMoca aren't quite as inspiring, but as always, the building itself (an old factory) is breathtaking.
susannah_breslin
I'm lost
June 2005
AUG 26, 2005 08:12 AM