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Patricia Piccinini / Australia b.1965 / The Gathering (still) 2007 / Digital Betacam and DVD formats, colour, sound, 3:00 minutes / Purchased 2009. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Patricia Piccinini
Patricia PiccininiThe gathering 2007
Not Currently on Display
Patricia Piccinini regularly plays on our conditioned responses, and The gathering primes our fears to reveal how easy it is to draw false conclusions. In a largely empty suburban house on a dark night, we see a young girl lying motionless on the floor. Our fears for her safety materialise in the unusual form of furry, wombat-like creatures that rustle out from behind the curtains and furniture. Are they preparing an attack on the vulnerable girl, or are they back to finish the job?
Instead, it seems they only want to show her to their young — safely concealed in pouches — as she slumbers. The scene closes on a traditional Indian painting of a couple relaxing in a garden at night, implying that all is well and that these creatures might just be babysitters.
Born in Sierra Leone, in West Africa, and raised in Italy and Australia, Patricia Piccinini has exhibited extensively around the world. She represented Australia at the 2003 Venice Biennale, created the inflatable sculpture Skywhale for the Centenary of Canberra in 2013, and drew over a million visitors to her touring exhibition in Brazil in 2016. Known for her imaginative, and incredibly lifelike, hybrid creatures, Piccinini uses sculpture, installation, video and sound to realise a fantastic and compassionate vision of the world, inspired by nature, science, art history and mythology.