ONLINE DOSSIER: PATRICIA PICCININI »SANDMAN«

»They were the adolescent surfer's vehicle of choice, nicknamed the 'shaggin' wagon' because their interiors were often the site of furtive sexual activity. For people of my generation, they symbolised freedom but also, particularly for girls, a sort of dangerous excitement.

The idea for my work Sandman was born from my desire to work with this symbol, but without reproducing the old clichés. This was quite hard because I am actually working with many of the archetypal ideas associated with the panel van; adolescence, the ocean, sexuality, threat. It was from all of these – combined with my own personal interest in ideas surrounding evolution, transformation, and the changing boundaries between the artificial and the natural – that my idea of Sandman was born.«