Pleasure. Permissions. Boundaries, Ex Libris Gallery, Newcastle University
A group exhibition exploring the research of Dr Tina Sikka, Reader in Technoscience and Intersectional Justice at Newcastle University. Artists Tiffany Faye, Lady Kitt, Sarah Li, Deborah Nash, Bethany Stead and Hedley Sugar-Wells have been working together since June 2023, leaning about Dr Tina Sikka's research into consent, and developing creative, collaborative and personal approaches to consent.
Rabbit Rabbit Hare, 2024, coloured pencil and thread on Lokta paper patchwork
For this body of work, I investigated in how humans represent and use animals in folklore and contemporary culture as literary devices for allegory, as well as physically for our own gain. The works are personal exploration into instances of consent and sexual assault. I was comissioned to create some handmade paper, from my own old repurposed drawings, with the support of local technician, George Stewart / Overlay Press.
The title Rabbit, Rabbit, Hare, is loosely based on an old British and North American folkloric superstition; on the first day of a month, one must say the word ‘rabbit’ twice to ensure good luck and fortune for the rest of that month. It is said that the superstition could be traced back to Celtic beliefs that rabbits can communicate with other realms as underground burrowers, and in African-American folklore, rabbits feet are especially thought to bring good luck, being used and worn as talismans.
The white rabbits act here as symbols of haste and cowardice, whereas the hare, often a symbol of vitality, sexual desire and fertility, acts as a literal and symbolic ‘grey area’, relating to the Germanic etymology of its name meaning, ‘grey’. Being made up of 6 quilted Lokta paper panels, the work brings together interests in textiles, sustainability and image-making, acting as a therapeutic process of cleansing, washing, enshrouding and shedding negative experiences into powerful visual stories.
This exhibition and the wider project was funded by a project grant from Arts Council England and supported by Newcastle University.