‘What’s up doc?’

After a long absence, the French phrase ‘poser un lapin’ (literally to ‘put down a rabbit’) but actually a colloquialism meaning ‘to stand someone up’ seemed appropriate to acknowledge the return to blogging in this Lunar Year of the Rabbit.

The Rabbit is the fourth of the Chinese Zodiac signs and is noted for its agility, wittiness, empathy and vigilance. Always aware of its surroundings it acts swiftly and deftly to protect itself. When this blog was on the verge on extinction it was time to find my ‘inner rabbit’ and commit to posting again. So, ‘j’ai honte, malheureusement je vous ai posé un lapin’ (google translate it) I am committed to occasional posting again this year.

The past eighteen months have seen many of us disappear down various rabbit holes in our personal, professional and social lives. I was reminded of the Chinese saying: Jiao Tu San Ku: a canny rabbit always has several holes. In these uncertain times it is wise to keep our rabbit holes handy.

Probably, the most famous literary rabbit hole was described by Lewis Carroll in 1865 in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. Carroll’s anthropomorphic White Rabbit is anxious, harried and always in a hurry – qualities that might easily apply to life in the 21^st century. Described by the author as: “timid, feeble and nervously shilly-shallying”, the White Rabbit is believed to be inspired by Dean Liddell, Alice Liddell’s notoriously tardy clerical father.

In 1851 Carroll viewed Edwin Landseer’s ‘Scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Titania and Bottom’ in the Royal Academy summer exhibition in London. The painting, which depicts a scene from the third act of Shakespeare’s play, shows the intoxicated Titania embracing enchanted and ass-headed Bottom while observed by woodland fairy folk and animals. Of particular note is the white rabbit in the right foreground. Landseer’s painting was a popular success. ‘The Sporting Magazine’ called it the ‘very best painting of the year … (with) the true feeling of the poet expressed in every atom of the picture’. Even Queen Victoria mentioned it in her diary describing the picture as ‘a gem’. Carroll also admired the white rabbit in the painting, and it is thought to have influenced the depiction of his White Rabbit.

The corollary of having safe spaces is the need for protection which has led to the image of rabbits on combat flags from ancient times. Another protective element is the ‘lucky rabbit’s foot’ – a good fortune amulet found in many cultures from Europe to China to the Americas. To be truly lucky, the donor rabbit needs to possess certain qualities eg. being killed in a particular place, using a particular method, or by someone with particular attributes – curiously, cross-eyed males seem to be especially favourable. However, as American humorist R. E. Shay observed: “Depend on the rabbit’s foot if you will, but remember it didn’t work for the rabbit”.

A rabbit’s foot was commonly found on large Scottish snuff mulls from the 19^th century. A mull is an oversized snuff box and the one pictured is from the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. It is mounted on castors which enabled it to be rolled down the table for gentlemen to partake of the snuff contained in the silver-capped ram’s horn. Attached to the mull by silver chains are a rake to scratch the snuff, a small spoon to scoop it up, and a rabbit’s foot for the gentlemen to wipe their moustaches after taking their sniff.

How we observe things and make sense of the world is integral to the rabbit-duck illusion – the famous ambiguous image in which both a rabbit and duck can be seen. First appearing in the Fliegende Blätter, a German comical magazine, in 1892, the image was made famous by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who included it in his ‘Philosophical Investigations’ to describe different ways of seeing: ‘seeing that’ versus ‘seeing as’.

Which animal we see first, our capacity to see the alternative animal, and our ability to shift between both images correlates with biological, sociological and psychological factors and, it seems, with our creativity. Perhaps unsurprisingly, observers are more likely to initially recognize the rabbit during Easter. Although, at other times of the year, the first object seen is usually the duck. And, the ability to oscillate between both and to ‘hold’ both images as congruent, is highly correlated with creativity. It is a reminder that our perception of the world is dependent upon our willingness to take in information. In 1991 local Melbourne artist, Kathy Temin, used her signature material – faux fur – to envisage a three dimensional soft sculpture of this visual conundrum.

A more recent controversial rabbit is the one created by New Zealand artist Michael Parekowhai. In 2002 the artist proposed two enormous rabbit sculptures for ‘2002 Scape: Art and Industry Urban Arts Biennial’ in Christchurch, New Zealand. Named Cosmo and Jim McMurtry, the brother rabbits formed a comical and distressing tableau as Cosmo looks across in fright at Jim sprawled nearby as if shot by a hunter. After considerable vocal local opposition, the project was not realised but Parekowhai went on to create inflatable versions of the pair which have been exhibited in Korea and Lithuania. In 2006, Cosmo appeared in Melbourne at the Melbourne Art Fair and was subsequently acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria.

Parekowhai’s art practice is known for addressing matters of race and colonisation. His use of rabbits acknowledges their longstanding trickster roles commonly seen in popular culture from Brer Rabbit of the American South to the cartoon Bugs Bunny. Tricksters dodge trouble, lie artfully and mock authority. These qualities caused considerable consternation in Christchurch as the sculpture posed the questions: Were they friendly feel-good presences? Or symbols of an invasive settler culture gone feral?

But let’s return to today’s rabbit – the Lunar New Year Rabbit. The Chinese Rabbit is an interesting character. As the companion of the moon goddess, who never grows old, it makes medicine by grinding herbs with a pestle and mortar and can be pictured on the surface of the moon. There is an old Beijing story of a rabbit who came down to earth from the moon to earth as a girl riding on a tiger and travelled in the city saving many from a serious epidemic. I suspect a ‘Rabbit year’ may be propitious for China as it emerges from Covid chaos.

This Moon Rabbit is found in many other Asian cultures ranging from India to Myanmar to Thailand to Vietnam to Japan. It is the subject of many tales, including in the Buddhist Jataka, and has been linked with Bodhisattvas and the elixir of immortality.

In Japan rabbits are valued for others reasons. The Japanese kanji used to write the word ‘rabbit’ is similar to the kanji meaning ‘get rid of’ or ‘make vanish’. Accordingly, it is believed that rabbits will make bad luck disappear. Alternatively, rabbits’ connection with fertility has ensured their prominent role in the Higashi Tenno Okazaki Shrine in Kyoto. Here rabbits are recognized as servants of the enshrined kami (a divine being in the Shinto religion) and receive messages from supplicants expressing their hopes for conceiving. In other words, rabbits are used to make things appear.

This Lunar New Year commences on 22 January and is auspiced by the Water Rabbit. Water means fortune which indicates prosperity. As this lunar year also contains a leap month (so that the lunar calendar remains in sync with the solar calendar) it is considered to be doubly auspicious.

According to several horoscopes consulted, we should look forward to prosperity, hope and calm as well as relaxation, quietness and contemplation. It will be important to work on both transience and malleability; to keep an open mind to changes; to engage in artistic pursuits; and to plan the next grandiose adventure. The Rabbit qualities of kindness, sensibility, cunning and ambition will be to the fore.

Best wishes for the New Year – may your inner Rabbit be with you!