Forget the oddly placed palm trees, this June giant glowing bunnies will be invading Wollongong’s Crown Street Mall in a bid to attract more visitors to the CBD.
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The creatures span either seven metres high or wide and were created by the hands of artist Amanda Parer. They will be part of a Nights On Crown event hosted by Wollongong City Council across June 21 to 23, which will also include local musicians performing in a number of shopfronts.
“The thought really is to make Crown Street a really compelling place, at any time of year, to come and visit,” a council spokesman said.
“There’ll be lots of light and lots of activity.”
The musicians are yet to be finalised but the giant balloon rabbits (collectively known as the Intrude Classix) will be installed along the eastern end of the mall.
Artist Ms Parer said since exhibiting the faux mammals at Sydney’s Vivid Festival in 2014 she hasn’t picked up a paint brush since due to their popularity.
“I thought after the initial showing I’d just pack them up and put them in a corner somewhere and go back to the easel,” she told the Illawarra Mercury.
“I’m flattered, I’m excited and I’m also prepared for their [popularity] to stop at any given time.”
Adults “turn into children” at the sight of these installations, said Ms Parer – who recalled seeig a smart dressed business woman throwing her shoes off then running and jumping with glee to take selfies.
“Sometimes I see lipstick kiss marks on the bunnies - I don’t necessarily want people to do that to my art – but it shows that people do adore them,” she said.
The thoughts behind her adorable artworks are more serious and raise questions about the natural world and the role of humans within it. Rabbits are an introduced species to Australia so the size of the installations are to represent the dominance of the animal in our natural landscape, she said.
Regardless of whether bystanders understand the meaning of the art or not, Ms Parer is happy to bring art outside of the gallery.
“All of a sudden there’s these giant rabbits [in a space people are familiar with] and it changes the feelings of them inside their own space,” she said.
“That helps them get into some kind of fantasy land possibly, and of course it alludes to Alice in Wonderland, but also being artwork there’s more layers to it so maybe people might sit and enjoy the different meanings in it.”