ADELAIDE, AU – With a value of more than $200,000, Big
Mother is the most significant addition to the Gallery’s contemporary Australian
art collection in recent times. The purchase was funded entirely with donations
from the Gallery’s Contemporary Collectors group of benefactors. Big Mother is a
staggering work measuring 1.75m high, made from silicone, fibreglass, leather
and human hair. It is the work of leading and sometimes controversial
contemporary Melbourne based artist, Patricia Piccinini. It was inspired by the
story of a baboon whose baby died while she was still nursing, and who abducted
a human child as a substitute.