Themes of genetic engineering and the homunculus in Patricia Piccinini's sculptural installation, We are Family

Abstract

In this article Patricia Piccinini's We are Family of 2003 is considered in terms of the concept of the genetic homunculus, which can be understood as the product of artifice. The genetically engineered human being is investigated within the context of alchemic and post-human discourse, with specific reference to the ideas of Donna Haraway and Jean Baudrillard. It is maintained that, although it is as yet impossible to accurately predict what the outcomes of such forays into the realms of the natural or the divine may be, post-human futures are already imagined and simulated in the milieu of artistic licence.