Colganology: The disturbingly beautiful sculpture of Patricia Piccinini

Sunday, 21 April 2013

The disturbingly beautiful sculpture of Patricia Piccinini

Somewhere between horror movie monster, biological specimen and fine art, there's Australian artist Patricia Piccinini.

The models are extraordinarily realistic, which adds to their strangeness.

Personally I love them. What she's doing, of course, is showing us that anything that challenges our perceptions of 'normal' can seem grotesque and uncomfortable.

There's a lot more of her work on her website here.

1 comment:

Anonymous28 October 2014 at 18:16
True art inspires the mind to higher things, while perfect art reflects the Source of Goodness Truth and Beauty itself, namely God. Thus everyone is naturally attracted to the beauty of a pristine forest and a spectacular sunset; while everyone recoils at the spoiled nature of a polluted environment which kills life. In a sense, some of these sculptures do present the reality of monstrosities found in nature, which are often the result of spoiled nature--something good that has been distorted by disease or some destructive outside agent. I suppose someone could make sculptures of human excrement and weave meaning out of it, and if someone wants to call it art, I would qualify it as bad art, for the same reason that polluted sunset does not inspire. This artist's work is certainly good craft in the sense that the she knows how to use tools to masterfully manipulate materials as any craftsman can; but it is bad art in the sense that it fails miserably to please. Is art always supposed to please? I would say that good art always inspires the human intellect to goodness, truth and beauty. There's harmony and then there's noise. Interestingly, some humans choose to bring beauty, goodness and joy into the world, while others choose to bring distortion, pollution and destruction of goodness itself..
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Praise for Joined-Up Thinking

'I found myself fascinated and somewhat dizzy. Most impressive' - Stephen Fry

'Dizzily intriguing' - The Bookseller

'The book that nails that odd, slightly unnerving feeling that everything really is connected' - John Mitchinson (Co-author of QI: The Book of General Ignorance)

'This is not a stocking filler - this is a real book. Buy several copies and keep one' - Daily Telegraph

'Quite simply the best way to spend time when not shopping, sleeping or preparing food' - Tony Hawks (author of Around Ireland with a Fridge)

'Can I recommend a book? It’s Joined-Up Thinking by Stevyn Colgan. The book’s packed with great info, from the derivation of the phrase ‘letting the cat out of the bag’ to the name for the thin bits of a cricket bail. Spigots, since you ask' - Mark Mason (author of The Importance of being Trivial)

'If you've ever looked at the Eiffel Tower and wondered how it's related to Dracula, then Stevyn Colgan is your man. Yes, it's trivia porn' - London Lite

'He connects each piece of his trivia puzzle in a concise, chatty, easy to follow, even logical, manner. This free-flowing style does not, thankfully, lend itself to pause and evaluation, but does allow for a great deal of chuckling and chin-stroking. He is the master of the trivial, the collector and cataloguer of the forgotten and inane - but no matter how worthless and unnecessary the information, Colgan has the knack of making it all sound intensely fascinating' - New Zealand Herald

'Stevyn Colgan has a theory; everything in the world can be connected through 'six degrees of information'. Trying to prove it takes us up some strange alleys but his engaging style means we don't get stuck down the road of intellectual whimsy' - Maxim

'It's a very smart style to a trivia book, and will I am sure be one of the hits of the forthcoming season' - The Bookbag

‘Stevyn Colgan's book, 'Joined-Up Thinking', could well be turned into a pub quiz or even a TV show. The latter could be even more of a possibility as Colgan has connections to the 'QI' BBC TV show. You're going to walk away from this book knowing a lot more than when you started.’ - SF Crows Nest

'How Colgan manages to find all these connections, unravel them and create something coherent and entertaining out of them is beyond me. But I'm glad he took the time, as the result is vastly fascinating and had my mind whirring round after itself for hours - immense fun!' - Falmouth People

Praise for Henhwedhlow

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‘Jumping from the 19th to the 21st century, Stevyn is taking an essential element of our Cornish culture and bringing it bang up-to-date. With the aid of the very clever artwork he aims to do this in a way that even kids sitting their exams will be tempted to bring the book to school so as to take an occasional peek under the desk for a spot of well-deserved humour.’ - Howard Curnow (Cornish bard and storyteller)

'The best book I've ever seen for helping you to learn the Cornish language or practice reading it. Brilliant fun too' - Cornish Voice