Penny Byrne is angry. Not as angry as this woman, but still pretty damn angry.
And there has been plenty to get angry about in recent times, like Sarah Palin, horse flu, George & Laura Bush and Guantanamo Bay, to name but a few.
By turning innocent figurines into sometimes bloody, always ghastly recreations of themselves, Byrne shocks and surprises her audience into actually giving a shit about world events.
Two of my favourite Byrne pieces are Hiroshi and his friends are having a whale of a time (2006, above), and the heartbreaking How much can a polar bear? #2 (2008, below). Byrne is represented by Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney.
