Kate Clark, Gallant, 2016, fallow deer hide, antlers, clay, foam, thread, pins, rubber eyes, wire, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of the artist.
Ronnie Van Hout, Sculp D. Dog, 2001, pegasus print, 83 x 52.5 cm. Courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery.
Jazmina Cininas, Blood Sisters, 2016.
Rona Green, Dusty Rhodes, 2011, hand coloured linocut, 76 x 56 cm, edition 23.
Deborah Klein, Ladybird Woman, watercolour on Khadi rag paper, (Photo credit: Tim Gresham).
Bharti Kher, The hunter and the prophet (from the Hybrid series), 2004, digital C-print, 114.3 x 74.9 cm.
Human-animal hybrids have captured our imagination in mythology and storytelling for thousands of years. But it is only in recent years that the amalgam has become a scientific possibility: in 2017 scientists successfully grew human stem cells in pig and sheep embryos. Scientists call these hybrids chimeras, after the monstrous Greek mythological creature pieced from lion, goat and snake members.
To coincide with the 200-year anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein, RMIT Gallery presents My Monster: The Human Animal Hybrid, an exhibition exploring our simultaneous fascination and horror with the fusion of the human and animal.
Curated by Evelyn Tsitas, the exhibition stems from her academic research into the human-animal hybrid in science fiction. Tsitas’ exhibition draws on ideas in humanities, feminism, philosophy, animal studies and the visual arts to examine “the complex issues surrounding human and animal relationships, our interconnectivity, and also how the hybrid form is used as a powerful metaphor”.
Presenting over 20 Australian and international artists whose work features the hybrid in various forms and mediums, My Monster examines the life cycle and narrative of the hybrid across five gallery spaces. Included are works by well-known Australian artists Julia deVille, Lisa Roet, Sam Leach, Sidney Nolan and Peter Booth.
The hybrid is the ultimate symbol of the outsider, tapping into our fear of difference and the Other. Human-animal hybrids disturb our sense of ourselves, leading us to question which fragment is more monstrous.
My Monster: The Human Animal Hybrid
RMIT Gallery
29 June – 18 August
Taja Vaetoru’s debut solo exhibition Idol, now showing .M Contemporary, explores their Polynesian ancestry, questions of tradition and worship, and how to intersect the past with the present.
With works from Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin, Betty Pumani and Robert Fielding, Aboriginal-owned Mimili Maku Arts’ first exhibition with Ames Yavuz is an opportunity to celebrate the milestone of their 20 year anniversary, as well as the ways of working that are integral to the centre and Aṉangu culture.
The finalist portraits in the biggest Australian art award of the year have been announced, alongside the winner of The Packing Room Prize: Abdul Abdullah for his portrait of fellow artist Jason Phu.
A new exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery takes us deeper into the life of the often-mythologised artist Frida Kahlo, through her personal photographs, clothing and objects, borrowed from Casa Azul, Kahlo’s house museum in Mexico.
Virtuosic digital artistry is on show in Serwah Attafuah’s installation The Darkness Between the Stars, currently showing at ACMI.
From matrescence-themed collages and intimate family portraits to a series of events centred on the intersection of design and fertility, revisit six pieces from the Art Guide archives that explore the relationship between art and motherhood.
