Turbulent Terrain: Manifestations of the Sublime in Contemporary Art
Olga Cironis

Olga Cironis is a Perth-based artist with a practice that spans over twenty years. She holds a Master of Visual arts from the University of Sydney.

Since the mapping of the human genome was announced, the subsequent applications of this relatively new knowledge and associated biotechnological possibilities have stirred fierce debate around the consequences of ‘playing God’ by interfering with natural biological systems. The notion of sublime terror manifesting within this burgeoning field of biological science and industry is explored through Cironis' Handle me gently series of soft sculptures.

This herd of malformed, hybrid creatures possess a surrealist, uncanny and grotesque potential for the expression of widely held contemporary anxieties regarding the power of science to bring about unprecedented human-inflicted disaster through gene manipulation, genetic screening of human embryos, organ farming and animal cloning. Constructed using second-hand blankets and based on a child’s drawings, Cironis’s freakish creations speak of the vulnerability of the body and its basic needs, and question notions of engineered perfection.

Olga Cironis is represented by Turner Galleries, Perth.

Image: Olga Cironis, Handle me gently series, 2008, steel, foam, blanket