Care and compassion—some of our most basic emotions and desires—are how humans and animals alike survive and thrive. Yet how do we as humans offer up such emotions, in the face of something unknown, including beings naturally and/or artificially created?

This fundamental question has engaged the Australian artist Patricia Piccinini (b. Sierra Leone, 1965) over the last 25 years, and is more relevant than ever today. At a time when traditional assumptions about gender and reproduction are dramatically shifting, when genetic engineering is becoming almost an everyday science and when artificial intelligence promises untold possibilities, at a time when traditional ecological wisdom is being reintegrated with modern scientific knowledge in forging a sustainable future, this question with the unknown forces us to reckon with how we may coexist with different beings - humans, animals, or others, in hybrid, artificial, or mythic forms. In Indonesia, this coexistence can also be imagined through ancestral knowledge such as myth and folklore that shape the cultural fabric across the archipelago.

Known and admired for her hyper-realistic sculptures of natural and artificial chimeras — organisms composed of genetic tissue from different species — Patricia Piccinini’s work examines new forms of the body and sexuality through a lens of compassion and care. Her works portray imaginary fusions of humans, animals, and other living creatures and machines using synthetic materials such as silicone, fiberglass, as well as organic materials like hair or even taxidermy animals. They offer spectacular modes of customization which all together toys with the increasingly nebulous boundaries between the artificial and the natural. Patricia Piccinini’s works challenge our understanding of what we think are common relationships in the world, and let’s us to imagine a future where humanity and other creatures might coexist not just in the same spaces—but potentially in the same bodily form – with all its consequences.