Walking around Patricia Piccinini’s Melbourne studio, we could be on a tour at the Natural History Museum. ‘And here we have a pollinator,’ says the artist, pointing out a long-limbed creature from whose body hangs a mane of thick hair. She stops at a bulbous flower, pausing for effect. ‘What’s growing in there? How does it reproduce itself?’

We stroll towards a naked orangutan, carrying her young.