In the 2003 Biennale Australian pavilion, Patricia Piccinini (‘We
are family’) entered into the flesh and spirit of the event
by seeking to plumb ‘normality’; she goes on the consider
‘What is family?’ A half-understood image of the human
genome seems to challenge all human urges to normalise, from birth
onwards. We seek normality and we recoil from any departure from
the norm. If the family becomes the organism for normality, then
Piccinini craves the abandonment of cherished, religious and secular
ideas for its continuity. Pulsating embryos, mothers and their clones
(created via stem cell technology?) presumably did not look their
best in temperatures around 40 degrees; but nor did they sweat in
the heat, for fear of short-circuitry. Welcoming orifices compete
with suburban kitsch. Could this be the final cry of the sublime?
For that experience, a too hot shower is called for, and a commentary
by Gillo Dorfles would consign this fruitless experiment to the
trash can.
