Weaver's suite

Weavers’ suite is a set of 12 prints comprising six surreal images of hummingbirds or weaver birds, with hair and female body parts. Each plate has been printed twice, in intaglio and relief, with the colour added via lithography.

Hair has been a potent symbol in art from the renaissance to Surrealism, with many implications for female representation – braided hair can represent profane love, while long or unruly hair is either a marker of penitence, in the case of the Magdalene, or of virginity. Hair is a motif in another work by Piccinini in the Gallery’s collection, ‘The comforter’ 2010, a sculpture of a young girl covered with hair presenting a genetic condition known as hypertrichosis, an arresting sight intended by the artist as a challenge to conventional ideas about beauty and youth.

The hair in this suite of prints is specifically female, indicated either through its depiction in styled hair arrangements, or proximity to female reproductive body parts. Weaverbirds and hummingbirds are small creatures who build delicate, sometimes complex nests as part of their natural life cycle. It is unclear whether the birds are creating or unravelling the woven hair creations in these images – their creations read as metaphors for women’s labour.

‘Hair suggests both sensuality but also culture, and the birds are all about fecundity… It became clear that the etching (medium) really suited the depiction of hair and birds in the way that I do them, so I just followed that lead.’ – Patricia Piccinini, 2021