Adelaide Biennial 2014: Dark Heart - in pictures

Ian Strange's site-specific sculpture Landed, commissioned for the biennial, re-creates his childhood home outside the Art Gallery of South Australia Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

An image from Shoufay Derz’s video Depart without Return, where silk moths crawl across the artist's face, which is painted indigo blue Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

In May 2013, 28 life jackets belonging to asylum seekers washed up on Cocos Island, off the coast of western Australia. Alex Seton's installation, Someone died trying to have a life like mine, features 28 life jackets made of Wombeyan marble. Ben Quilty’s The Island is displayed on the wall behind Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Nick Mitzevich, who curated the Dark Heart exhibition at the festival and is director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, in front of Ben Quilty’s The Island Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Pucker up! Patricia Piccinini's The Skywhale was designed by the artist to mark the centenary of Canberra, in 2013, and built in Bristol Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Artist Patricia Piccinini discusses her work Skywhale as it flies above Adelaide Botanic Gardens Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

A balloon operator adds another 'burn' to keep Skywhale in the air Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Chuck Whittington and Julia Townsend, both from Adelaide, help weigh down the Skywhale balloon Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Playmates … a stuffed and dressed bunny and a bird in Julia deVille's installation Phantasmagoria Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

A stuffed piglet from deVille's Phatasmagoria installation Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Jo Bain from the South Australian Museum uses borax and a scalpel to skin a rat at the start of a taxidermy demonstration in the gallery. Bain is the museum's in-house taxidermist and biological model maker Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Chinese-Australian artist Ah Xian's has described his series Evolutionaura, comprised of eight life-size bronze sculptures, as an exploration of the human figure Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Rosemary Laing's A dozen useless actions for grieving blondes, on display in the gallery. Click here for a video with curator Nick Mitzevich on why Laing's series is among his favourite works at the festival Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Dale Frank's abstract artwork in the gallery Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Under wraps … this statue of Edward VII, outside Adelaide's state library, has been mysteriously covered in brown paper since February Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

The sculpture, Clouds, 2012, by New York-based Australian artist Ian Burns, comprises aluminium ladders, fans, keyboards, televisions, umbrellas and magnifying glasses, and it fills an entire room in the gallery Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Established in 2010, the Kulata Tjuta project teaches young men the skills of spear (kulata) production and wood (punu) carving. The project led to this series of art installations. 'Young men have always learned to make kulata through the old men, and through the old men like me the fight will continue for a better future for Anangu,' said project director Willy Kaika Burton Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian