Imagine if an artist could take all the magic out of their paintings and transplant it into the real world where you get to experience it, not on a flat canvas, but all around you.
That is precisely what Australian artist, Amanda Parer, has done with her most recent work, 'Intrude'. About to be displayed at the Maroochy Music & Visual Arts Festival,'Intrude' is a larger than life installation of giant, glowing, seven-metre-tall bunnies.
Amanda's use of a feral animal, introduced by white settlers, is no accident. Her intention is to turn a mirror on us human beings, reminding us that we are animals too and we are not only responsible for the introduction of feral species but also for our own unique and varied brands of environmental damage.
While the underlying themes of the work are quite serious, there's no denying the simple awesomeness of cute, towering rabbits. There's something lovely and welcoming about the pillowy soft, gently glowing, innocent, white bunnies and this creates a curious contrast to the message of destruction also contained within the work.
© Ness VandeburghYou convey clear environmental messages through your art, with a particular focus on feral animals. What is it that draws you to these themes?
The animals that I use are general are not considered to be feral when in their natural environment and are often well managed or controlled in the countries from which they came which is predominantly Europe. But we are not in Europe and Australia has very different environmental concerns. The choice of those animals used is an interesting process because I like to convey an animal which has destructive properties yet is entirely approachable to the viewer like rabbits, pigs, foxes and deer. One of my most outstanding journeys as an artist was going to the Galapagos Islands where I experienced pristine environments. After returning home the impact of those new species seemed far more evident to me and became a conversation that I wanted to start.
I use feral animals as a feature in my work. Australia is a land with unique flora and fauna and introduced species that have been brought with white settlement for sport, food and agriculture just over 200 years ago are out of control and continue to cause great environmental destruction. I enjoy using the rabbit in my work because it holds dual symbolism, one it is a cute, welcoming animal, reminding people of their childhood and the other is that it is an introduced species that has caused great destruction to the delicate Australian ecosystems. The first rabbit arrived with the convicts on the first fleet and we have been unable to eradicate the species ever since. Easily adaptable the rabbits have occupied each corner of the country. I use feral animals in my work as a metaphor for man's mismanagement and overuse of the environment. I am interested in how easily we anthropomorphasise animals to tell our stories with out fully acknowledging that we are animals too. I use feral animals like rabbits, deer and foxes to use their cuteness and sentimentality to lure the viewer into the more serious environmental messages in the work. I believe these issues have global relevance.
© Rodney CampbellI understand you were lucky enough to tag along with your uncle (wildlife film maker, David Parer) to the Galapagos Islands. What was your favourite memory from the adventure?
I was indeed lucky to go to the Galapagos with my film maker Uncle David Parer and Aunty Liz Parer-Cook. They were spending two years making 3 separate natural history films for BBC, National Geographic and the ABC. I was brought along to help look after my cousin (their daughter) Zoe, and take still photos of the animals and production. The Galapagos is unique in many ways but one main one that struck me was the tameness of the animals. Left secluded until relatively recently the animals had not developed a fear of man so they were as curious about us as we were of them. This helped to develop an affinity and respect of the animals. It was here that I recognised fully how much we claim sole ownership of the planet and reap it for our own uses without consideration of the ongoing effect on other species or the future of our own.
I had many great experiences in the Galapagos Islands. One was being on our boat up near the smaller northern islands and all of a sudden a school of flying fish swam past and just like Life of Pi some actually flew onto the deck, we tried to throw as many of them back in as we could, in the hope of keeping them alive. Another great and humbling experience was swimming with 40 foot whale sharks and mega schools of dolphins where a mother dolphin came right up to me and showed me her baby. A similar situation happened when we were chasing an Orca pod with our boat when suddenly they disappeared under the surface so we stopped the boat and waited for them to resurface n the distance somewhere. All of a sudden the dominant male of the pod came close up near the boat checking us out almost giving the 'all clear' to the others in the pod and then a female came and circled the boat with her baby and eye peering up at us the entire time. Being with my Uncle I came to understand the risks he was willing to take in order to get the best shot. We were on a boat scheduled to find and film Sperm whales. The scientist aboard found a pod of females with a baby laying still on the surface of the ocean. The boat stopped as close as possible and without risking any one else’s safety David was to go in on his own to film. Females have been known to get aggressive when they have juveniles in the pod, so we were all very nervous. So he slipped into the water and swam over to them and filmed them. He looked like a insect near them. He got the shots before they all dove returned to the depths.
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An installation like this is very different from paintings in a gallery which audiences can only really connect with visually. What's it like watching people interact with your art?
With my work, I am not necessarily trying to brow beat people into submission with an environmental message, rather I am hoping to start a conversation. When viewers continue that conversation after engaging with the art work I feel very proud that I have been able to communicate successfully and it is also very nice when people say they enjoy the work. When a work (such as a painting is in a galley a number of people who can engage with it is limited to a particular demographic, where as festivals by their nature are open to every one and the diverse range of people at an exhibition is an incredible spectacle in itself. On an interesting point viewers are drawn to a festival for the the diversity of art and artists are drawn to festivals for the diversity of the audience.
The experience of Vivid 2014 was amazing. It is part of being an artist to constantly push boundaries and in this case it was my first step out of doing work for inside a gallery to doing public art installation. As an artist I like to constantly try new things and as a result you are never really sure of how people are going to react. Creating the light art installation Intrude was new for me and therefore a risk. Since this experience I am now focusing my practice on festival art work. From this experience I am mostly enjoying having my work communicate with a broad section of community. Once the work is installed I love hanging back and watching people engage with the work. With Intrude I found that children are openly affectionate toward it and adults almost become children by doing the same.
Have you seen (or heard of) any memorable or strange reactions from someone to the bunnies?
I had Intrude up for the media preview before the opening and witnessed people approach the art work for the first time. I saw a child sheepishly approach the work and thought that it will be nice to see a child's reaction and seemingly out of nowhere came a woman who kicked off her shoes and ran from rabbit to rabbit hugging in succession. I thought that was great and then the Australian actor Rob Carlton came up to me and said 'your site fucking rocks!' That evening pretty much set the tone for the rest of the 21-day festival.
© Rodney CampbellAt a few locations where Intrude has been on display I have noticed some feel the need to leave lipstick kiss marks on one of the rabbits. I haven't worked out if this is gross or lovely yet?
My favourite experience was when I arrived at 11:30 pm one evening to get ready for pack down when I came across three people in full traditional Japanese dress including a Geisha. They were sitting on a blanket and conducting a tea ceremony nestled in between one of the bunnies paws. I introduced myself as the artist and they told me that they had just caught the ferry over and were going to go somewhere to conduct a tea ceremony and after seeing 'Intrude' from the ferry they decided to go there because it looked like a peaceful place to be. They asked me to join them and the tea master proceeded to quietly and graciously make me a cup of tea – beautiful.
You've created quite a unique experience for people with this installation. Can you tell us about a time when another artist has done that for you (taken you by surprise or challenged the way you see the world)?
I have longed been an admirer of Jeff Koons. I like the humour in his work and his ability to traverse mediums. I love the way he can make art spectacular. Last year I was fortunate to view his retrospective at the Pompideu Center in Paris and the binding themes encouraged me even further to challenge myself by my visions and my abilities to communicate.
I really respect Anish Kapoor's work. He is an artist who has the ability to consider peoples personal, domestic, atmospheric and environmental spaces. I am especially fascinated with his ephemeral concert hall called Ark Nova. This is a 36m high inflatable bubble shaped hall designed to stage performances including orchestras, jazz and theatre seating 500 people. Kapoor created this in partnership with a Japanese architect Arata Isozaki to tour around the tsunami stricken areas of Japan.
© Rodney CampbellHave there been any bunny catastrophes yet (punctures, strong winds, lightning strikes)?
The bunnies being inflatables do not have a solid structure within them to maintain their shape as they rely on air pressure to do so. That being said they are tethered in place to minimise their movement. During Vivid 2014 Sydney experienced some very strong weather which ultimately resulted in an improvement of the tethering technique. Fortunately however many of the audience simply thought that the bunnies were then animated sculptures.
The bunnies have been designed to cope with significant weather conditions once erected. Erecting in those conditions is the interesting part of that equation as it's those that are erecting the work that have to cope with the weather. As part of Vivid the bunnies were erected every day at 6pm and dismantled at midnight. So twice a day the production team had to deal with the weather. The bunnies were strangely serene and unaffected by the process suffered by their handlers. When the bunnies were showing at the Ghent Licht Festival in Belgium 2015 they not only had to cope with winds but very low temperatures where rain turned to sleet. The bunnies suffered no punctures the handlers came close to frost bite.
You've taken the bunnies to festivals all over the world now. Did you ever expect them to be so huge (pun kind of intended)?
Ha ha, and I'd like to think that my answers seem like more than just hot air! When producing any art work an artist's main worry could be how the piece will be received. I have been very lucky that the bunnies have been adopted by so many groups and people. They seem to mean so much to so many different people for many different reasons on top of being able to engage with the conversation about the environment that was the intent behind the piece originally. As the pieces have so many levels of interaction people have use social media to comment on the works and that in itself has been breathtaking to observe. The success of Intrude has served to inspire me further more works to continue that conversation in varied and hopefully interesting ways.
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You've used crowd funding to help turn your concept for this installation into reality. What gave you the idea to do this?
When 'Intrude' was in its planning stages I realised that funding was going to be a key component to get the art work realised. I had made more traditional approaches for funding and realised the topic amongst friends and colleagues and crowd funding was mentioned at that time.
A variety of funding were employed for Intrude and crowd funding was one of those. The bonus with crowd funding is that it allows people who would normally not think that they are creative people to be involved in creative venture and adopt the work as their own. I am immensely grateful to 'team Intrude' for ensuring that this work were able to be produced.
Did you expect it to turn out so well?
Expect may be too strong a word. Hoped is always the best level to work at. One can be confident in your work but art is subjective and one persons response is not going to be the same as anothers. However the responses that have been shown in the press as well as social media have indicated that many people seem to have reacted very positively to this work and to that I am very grateful, but I never take the audience for granted.
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Can we expect more larger than life installations from you in the future?
Well, yes. In fact in Vivid 2015 I have created another large light sculpture once again featuring animals, this time pigs. Whilst similar in theme I believe that these are very different pieces and referring to gluttony. Once again I can only hope that these pieces are equally well received and will be viewed and enjoyed by the festival's audience. Beyond that I am also already in planning stages for further works once again of a large scale nature but at this stage I suppose I should keep those details under my hat.
