Patricia Piccinini: ComCiência

Australian artist Patricia Piccinini’s (b. 1965, Freetown, Sierra Leone) first major solo exhibition in Brazil brings together sculptures, videos, photographs and drawings from the past 15 years of her practice. The title is a neologism in Portuguese, combining the ideas of science, conscience and consciousness, alluding to Piccinini’s interest in empathy, ethics and humanness in the contemporary world.

The artist is mostly known for creating hyperrealist sculptures in fiberglass and silicon of humans and fantastic creatures that seem genetically altered. Amongst the exhibited works are the iconic sculptures “Big Mother”, an ape-like creature feeding a baby, and “The Observer”, of curious boy on top of an unstable pile of stacked chairs. While in CCBB’s basement, a series of anthropomorphized machines are exhibited, figures somewhere between the organic and the inorganic, on the fourth floor the public will be able to see creations that seem to have lost any attachment to the real world. The rest of the works will be spread all over the building, occupying the old mansion as they were their residents.

After the exhibition period in São Paulo, the show will travel to Brasília’s and Rio de Janeiro’s units of CCBB.