Big mother - Art Gallery of South Australia

Big mother, like its name might suggest, is one big, beautiful and mesmerising piece of art. Standing tall in the centre of a black room, a baboon breast feeds a human baby.

A month since she came to the Art Gallery of South Australia, this piece is still drawing a constant flow of spectators; drawn to her distant, sad gaze; her male-like arms; her hand-like feet, the human hair; the grotesque and magnified depiction of baboon genitalia; and finally, the impossible - a human suckling a primate.

Or is it really impossible? Artist Patricia Piccinini has based the piece on a true story. A female baboon who abducted a human baby following the death of her own young, while still nursing (the baby was later found safe and unharmed).

This piece plays on our repulsions, curiosities and our inability to recognise ourselves as animal. Big mother represents a genetically modified baboon, upright and nurturing, so humanlike yet so primitive. Piccinini points out that upon viewing Big mother, you do not fear for the young in her arms, but more for her, and why she holds such a worried gaze.

If you're keen to see some accessible, interesting and thought-provoking art, go pay Big mother a visit. She's intriguing, terrifying, and beautiful. You won't be able to tear your eyes away.

Tiny Towns

The Climate Crisis. We hear about it every day, anticipate its morbid
eventuality, and all the while feel powerless to do much about it.
But don't look away yet. Adelaide artist John Willanski's exhibition
Tiny Towns eradicates all that fear and unease, with its cute yet
poignant take on sustainable communities and doing your bit to be
green.

Part of Adelaide's Fringe Festival, Willanski's portraiture of a
low-key, green-friendly community of bee keepers, chooks, rainwater
tanks and local produce-swapping depicts a not too distant reality
that, although not hard to come by, is something the majority fails to
participate in.

John said: “So many environmentalists scale back their ecological
footprints in isolation, taking on too much change in an unsustainable
way. I hope that people who are working to reduce their footprints
consider communities as part of that and people who haven't thought
about can see it's not that hard.”
Inspired by a research project on how the role of communities can
respond to the environmental challenges of the future, the snapshots'
welcoming and childlike style promises to engage and provoke those
into thinking small and changing big.

The exhibition launches February 9, and goes on inspiring until March
31 at Bliss Organic Cafe, Compton Street, Adelaide.