Stunning Animal–Machine Hybrids by Heidi Taillefer

Heidi Taillefer - Doppleganger

Nature and technology collide in the beautifully bizarre paintings of Heidi Taillefer, a Montreal-based artist who has been showing her work for more than twenty years. Her colorful style is informed by the early twentieth-century surrealists, summoning a broad range of figurative traditions, from the drama of baroque portraiture to whimsical steampunk imagery. Taillefer’s themes center around the complex relationships that exist between humanity, nature, and technology. She cleverly “bio-engineers” the subjects of her paintings, mixing animals parts with gears, watches, and other automaton parts. Many of the animals are fused with the bodies of other species, as well as symbolic parts and products that suggest carnal consumption, such as breasts and raw meat on the body of a pig. Elaborate and mind-bending, Taillefer’s paintings provide the viewer with an opportunity to contemplate the growing presence of machines in our biological existences.

Heidi Taillefer - Intransigence

Heidi Taillefer - Preparing to Moult

Heidi Taillefer - Birth of Venus

Heidi Taillefer - Chimeric

Heidi Taillefer - Angels

Heidi Taillefer - Some Pig

Heidi Taillefer - Silkworm

Heidi Taillefer - Understanding Leda

Heidi Taillefer - Karma

Images © Heidi Taillefer

Via AFA Gallery