Artist’s eye enlisted to reduce road deaths

Patricia Piccinini has teamed up with Victoria’s TAC in a new campaign that uses art to change the way drivers think.
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Piccinini has designed Graham to illuminate human vulnerabilities in road accidents; source TAC and courtesy of the artist

Patricia Piccinini is one of Australia’s best known artists, an original thinker who would not normally create a work to order.

But when Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission (TAC) approached her to imagine a sculpture of the kind of anatomy a human would need to survive a road accident she was tempted to her first partnership with a cause.

She told ArtsHub: ‘When people see this work they will encounter in a gallery – it is not an advertisement. It is a catalyst for conversation. The TAC don’t want to go to television in that direct way – they want to discuss these ideas in more intimate ways.’

The result is Graham – a human-like sculpture that has been anatomically modified to eliminate vulnerabilities most common in road trauma.

The celebrated Melbourne artist worked with a leading trauma surgeon and crash investigation expert Christian Kenfield, from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, to create the work. .

ArtsHub previewed Graham in the studio before it was launched today at the State Library of Victoria.Minus a neck and with sacks of air on his chest to act like car airbags, he is both foreign and uncannily familiar. Like most of Piccinini’s sculptures, Graham has a hybrid quality and yet there is enough realism to evoke empathy.

‘Humans would have to look something like Graham in order to survive a crash,’ Piccinini explained. ‘He has this almost helmet-like face with these built in crumple zones – they are about slowing the head down. He has the same size brain with more space, and his ribs are fortified, so they come up into the skull and further protect the head.’

While the TAC’s motivation for the work was to make drivers slow down, Piccinini also sees it as a sculpture that addresses her interests in what is human and in genetic engineering.

‘We have to have an idea that this could be possible. He looks a bit like an orangutan so that brings in that idea of evolution … it gives that reference of genetic change.’

Art speaks to the broadest audience

The sculpture builds on natural human mechanisms, but also on safety technologies. What is exciting here is that a government agency has recognised that art has the ability to deliver an important message to the broadest possible public.

Rather than scare-tactics and affronting advertisements on the television, Graham takes a different tone in the way TAC new road safety campaign will connect with audiences of all age, through a state wide tour. 

As part of the campaign an online interactive educational tool has also been developed where users can look under Graham’s skin and understand the workings of his body.

Hotspots’ on Graham’s body that would see him survive a crash; Supplied: TAC

 

Graham will be on display at the State Library of Victoria until August 8.

Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina