Some very large white rabbits, illuminated in stark white light, have been invading the planet. The bunnies of Intrude stand enormous, yet relaxed in their given new homes.

Rabbits in artist Amanda Parer’s native Australia are a feral species, they leave a trail of ecological destruction wherever they go and defying attempts at eradication. First introduced by white settlers in 1788, they have caused a great imbalance to the country’s endemic species.

Yet, the rabbit is also an animal of contradiction. They represent the fairy-tale animals of our childhood, of furry innocence, frolicking through idyllic fields. Intrude deliberately evokes this cutesy image, and strong visual humour to lure you into the artwork only to reveal the more serious environmental messages in the work. The bunnies of Intrude are huge, the size referencing “the elephant in the room”, the problem, like our mismanagement of the environment, big, but one that we too easily ignore.

“It can be said that the rabbit is my muse. My artwork, Intrude, is like any good fairytale, it works from both the light and the dark. In Australia, the rabbit simultaneously represents a cute, cuddly character from our childhood and is an animal known to impose great destruction of the island continents’s delicate ecosystems. It has been fun to use these motifs to explore our relationship with the natural world.” – Amanda Parer, Artist

Learn more about the artist, Amanda Parer, and her inspiration behind Intrude in our recent blog.