With my rabbits, I coquette with the Western American culture by making sculptures of a well-known myth—the Jackalope, a rabbit with horns. The Jackalope story was devised by the Douglas brothers from the USA, who worked as rabbit hunters, selling them to local stores and hotels in the 1930s. Although some people claim to have seen the Jackalope, scientists suggest that these sightings were likely rabbits infected by Shope papillomavirus, which causes large tumors on the rabbits’ heads, resembling horns.

I deliberately sculpt the white, elegant rabbit as a commentary on modern technology that has provided humanity with new methods and tools for poaching. This choice emphasizes the contrast between the purity of the rabbit and the brutality of human actions. I focus on creating mythological and endangered animals with horns as a statement on human cruelty and barbarism. This juxtaposition aims to highlight the impact of human activity on wildlife and to provoke thought on the ethical implications of our advancements and behaviors.

The Jackalope has also become a subject of interest in cryptozoology, the study of animals whose existence is not confirmed by mainstream science. Cryptozoologists explore creatures like the Jackalope, blending folklore and alleged sightings with scientific inquiry. This field, while often seen as fringe science, reflects humanity’s enduring fascination with the unknown and the possibility that mythical creatures may have roots in reality. By incorporating the Jackalope into my work, I connect with this sense of wonder and the timeless human quest to explore and understand the mysteries of our world.

“Hurry up, take your time” The exhibition with the contradictory title, “Hurry up, take your time,” reveals (or hides) the paradoxical, astonishing, and certainly surreal nature of the theme presented to us. This title, like a true marketing lure, draws us to visit the exhibition and convince ourselves of the creativity of our own associations, to perceive our own intuition and judgment. Paradoxical concepts intrigue us, encouraging more complex thinking and prompting questions about what is true and what is false, what is real and what is unreal.

Alana’s blue rabbit introduces us to a fantastic world that defies logic. It is a world unknown and unreal to us, Alice’s “Wonderland,” into which we are lured by curiosity through Alana’s “rabbit hole.” In it, a figure of a cobalt blue rabbit with oversized ears is caught mid-jump. This evokes Alice’s rabbit, who is always in a hurry, but it is actually a product of the artist’s own dreams. The artist is attracted to myths and fairy tales, dreams and their symbolism, as well as the deviant products of the human mind. She sees their symbolism as a direct manifestation of the unconscious, taking it as an archetype, as a positive sign. To dream of a blue rabbit means to have strong faith and morals. It is a symbol of personal happiness, fertility, new life, and thus one of the leading symbols of spring. This is not the first time Alana has explored this theme (she previously sculpted the well-known myth of the horned rabbit – the Jackalope). However, since those static, almost totemic figures, the main expressive characteristic of her work is now movement. This movement confirms and anticipates spatiality, suggesting motion, and endows the sculpture with another dimension, which is time. This same time that irreversibly passes, which the sculpture initiates, seeking its ideal place in space. The limbs are perfect symbols of this movement, and in Alana’s recent variation, they testify to the beauty of form and the excellence of execution, which in the subtle transitions of the living shape, exhibit elegant lightness, further enlivened by another, crucial component in the visual language – color. Along with shape and motif, color carries a fullness of meaning, clothing the work in contemplative energy.

In dialogue, in an exhibition that unites opposites in both theme and title, Alana explores the ambiguity and duality of information and phenomena, including herself, not accepting them as defined constraints, but as a state of mind, a meeting of energies vibrating in some astral space.

Sanda Bajzek

The work consists of two figures in a relation with each other. One of the figures symbolize a one’s true personality and a state of emotion. It is positioned in a fetal posture, curled up like a small child lying in a large “puddle” of water. This water symbolizes a ruptured membrane, which once protected the figure (sculpture) and gave no space to bad influences, tainting, or fear. What remains is a puddle of black water surrounding the figure, representing something unconscious. The sculpture will have to confront reality and the sudden removal of the sanctuary believed to be unassailable.

Through the fetal position and a dream in which the figure is depicted, it is projected as a small child placed on a pedestal. Elevated above the first sculpture, which is in a much more helpless and infantile position, the child gazes upon its own persona. The child acts as an observer over the damaged being, unaware of its state and time, which is entirely relative in this staging.

This artistic concept explores the themes of vulnerability, protection, and the inevitable confrontation with reality. The contrast between the curled-up figure in the water and the elevated child on the pedestal highlights the journey from unconsciousness to awareness, from a state of protected innocence to the harshness of reality. The use of water as a symbolic element enhances the narrative of rupture and exposure, while the positioning of the figures creates a dynamic interplay between innocence, vulnerability, and the strength found in facing one’s fears.