About The Rabbit Hole Effect
This project began initially out of a sense of play and an appreciation for the absurd. There is something attractive about the disquieting effect of a person with a rabbit head that I wanted to express. And so I set out to make a head of my own. Although it is not actually a rabbit so much as a hare. Because there is something more human about hares than rabbits.
The head itself is made of chicken wire, foam, foil, masking tape, paper mache; I improvised as I went along. I need to smooth out some of its imperfections in the editing phase. One ear has been broken and repaired once. The neck has been ripped off a few times. The part of the face where I tried to make a peephole out of is virtually useless. I am blind, deaf, and dumb when I wear it. For me, this is part of the work. I have an intimacy with that head. I brought it into the world, I’ve lived inside it, I’ve given it a body, I’ve given it life. And when I’m done, wherever I put it, it seems it’s looking at me and I can’t quite tell what it’s thinking. But it’s thinking something.
Art can lie so close to the edge of folly. And it was folly that was beckoning me.
All are self-portraits, some taken on location, others are composites. All photos, editing, and digital art is mine, except for water photo taken by Berend de Kort, I used in the Sink or Swim piece.
