2017 Exhibition
5. Intrude
LOCATION: The College for Creative Studies Sculpture Garden
Some very large inflatable white rabbits, illuminated in stark white light, have been invading festivals around the world. The bunnies of Intrude stand tall yet relaxed at 7m high and appear to be quite at home in their new patch.
Why rabbits?
Rabbits in artist Amanda Parer’s native Australia are an out of control pest, leaving 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 countries endemic species. The rabbit also is an animal of contradiction.
They represent the fairytale animals from our childhood – a furry innocence, frolicking through idyllic fields. Intrude deliberately evokes this cutesy image, and a strong visual humour, to lure you into the artwork only to reveal the more serious environmental messages in the work. They are huge, the size referencing “the elephant in the room”, the problem, like our environmental impact, big but easily ignored.
Amanda Parer’s installation, Intrude, is sponsored by:
Artist Information
Amanda Parer
Australian artist Amanda Parer’s edgy and ephemeral artworks explore the natural world, its fragility and our role within it. With startlingly beautiful creatures enlarged and frozen within their chosen habitats. When viewing one of these iconic, mostly feral animals inhabiting a beautifully haunting landscape, the environmental message is enhanced by the artist’s finely crafted technique in any of her chosen mediums such as public installation, painting or sculpture. Parer is an artist originally from Sydney but now resides in Tasmania where her work has been acquired by both public and private collections. Her work has been displayed in major international public art museums such as the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Memphis Museum of Art. Amanda has also attracted major art commissions such as from Starfield Hanam, Seoul Korea and Brookfield International where her works embarked on a major US tour of their keystone properties in New York, Houston, Denver, and Los Angeles during 2016.
Amanda’s major public art installation Intrude was a prominent work in the 2014 Vivid Festival in Sydney and since that time the artwork and its different manifestations, Intrude sm, XL, XXL, and Nibbles have so far been exhibited in over 40 cities on four continents around the world and continues to capture major media attention where ever it goes.
Amanda works with a team of international engineers, lighting, computer and production technicians from her Northern Tasmanian studios to develop her artworks.