Planet of Rabbits

"All grown-ups started off as children (though few of them remember)."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's book, The Little Prince

I explore the world drifting confusion around the border between reality and fantasy and I express feelings and memories that could not be verbalized. In this series, planet of Rabbits, I practice these particularly in issues of children's mentality and relationship with their parents.

When I lived in a council estate in London, I have met many children in my everyday life. I have started this project, because I realized how interested in watching them. Also I have been interested in what was the key factor of the dramatically increased social problems which involve children and which were caused by youths. I consider that probably distance or poor communication between children and their parents seemed to be argued. As reality and fantasy seems to act like a mirror, I believe that the mirror like relationship also exists in the relationship between children and grown ups (especially their parents).

The images portray delicate and complex scene from novels, Grimm's Fairy Tales, clipping from newspapers, and from my childhood memories. The symmetrically set up background symbolizes that reality and fantasy co-exist in our world. The pumpkins are used as metaphors of un-verbalized feelings and children's sign. To me, a rabbit is an evocative fanciful symbol. When I was a child, I was told rabbits lived in the moon. I could see the figures of two rabbits pounding sticky rice in a mortar to make mochi, a special Japanese food eaten especially for New Years celebration. Even now, although I have grown up, I can still see the figures on the surface of the moon. Therefore, I used the rabbit as a metaphor of "childishness".

Toshie Takeuchi 2007.