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Lunar Rabbit, 2011

Joan Jonas, a pioneer of video and performance art, as well as one of the most important female artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s, often uses her work to examine folklore, representation, and the real versus the imaginary. For this project, students from the Clinton School for Writers and Artists worked with Jonas to explore the myth of a selfless rabbit who is rewarded by having his image eternally imprinted on the moon. Jonas previously studied in Japan to explore their version of the same myth and created a book of images and photographs during her stay there.

The students and Jonas explored the myth's symbolism and themes in the Aztec tradition through discussion, drawing, papier-mâché, and ultimately the creation of a sculpture and video work of art. Together, they created costumes in Japanese paper, crafted papier-mache’ masks, and constructed a variety of props to be used for the performance. Finally, the students enacted the tale of the self-less rabbit in a wooded area along the Hudson River.

Joan Jonas later cropped the footage into a circular image that was projected on a moon hanging from the ceiling, and conceived a fairytale-like sculptural video installation incorporating materials including an artificial lawn, cut-out free-standing rabbits as well as rabbit drawings blown up on the walls. The final mixed media installation, Lunar Rabbit, was displayed in the window of the Luceplan lighting store in Soho, New York, in March 2012, and at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia from October 2012 through January 2013.

Second Exhibition: Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philidelphia
(October 5, 2012 - January 2013)