Artist Patricia Piccinini's Human-Dog Hybrid

    "The Young Family"

Patricia Piccinini was born in 1965 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.She is an Australian artist known for work that blurs the line between real and artificial; human and animal.
The image above is a human-dog hybrid suckling her young. It has become a viral Internet hit for Patricia Piccinini.  The image is actually a picture of her sculpture from a show in 2003.

Created for her 2003 show for the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the human-dog hybrid is actually what Piccinini calls a "transgenic creature," "The Young Family" is the title of this work and Piccini said in a lecture that she was inspired by the prospect of growing human organs in other species.

 Piccini said, "I wanted to address the reality of the creatures themselves in a very compassionate way, and show a very beautiful image of motherhood," she said. "As you can see, she is really caring towards her children and worried about them. The question I raise, that I am interested in, relates to the distinction between human and animal characteristics, not so much her humanity, but the 'animalness' in us."

Here are some of her works...

                       "Leather Landscape"

                  "Still Life With Stem Cells"

                      "Game Boys Advanced"

Photo credits:  http://www.zimbio.com/Patricia+Piccinini/articles/Az1Dv3kcIdd/Human+Dog+Hybrid+Becomes+Viral+Hit+Australian

Source:  http://www.zimbio.com/Patricia+Piccinini/articles/Az1Dv3kcIdd/Human+Dog+Hybrid+Becomes+Viral+Hit+Australian