Why are those houses
so high off the ground?
I wanted it to look like the rabbits don't really have a strong connection
to the land they are building on, or that they haven't come to terms with it
properly, and I wanted the whole house to look like a piece of furniture that
can just be picked up and put down anywhere. This idea was inspired by the fact
that European architecture did not 'fit in' to the Australian landscape at
first, just like a lot of other cultural things (animals, water-use,
agricultural methods - which still do not fit in very well to this day). It
later occured to me that the houses also ended up looking like rabbit hutches,
boxes on stilts, so this was a lucky coincidence. Though sometimes ideas come to
me subconsciously, so I just know something 'looks right' without knowing
why.
Why are there numbers
on everything?
I answered this a bit in an earlier question; basically, the numbering is a
kind of 'abstract' way of knowing things and putting them in order, especially
saying one thing is more important than another. In fact, a lot of the rabbit's
culture is quite abstract, in the sense that we aren't sure what things mean,
and they are quite confusing or bewildering. I imagined this was what it was
like for Aborigines when first faced with Europeans.
Why do the rabbits
wear wheels on their feet?
Again, this is a bit like the houses being on stilts; it's kind of the
opposite of how the indigenous animals would move, where they feel the ground
all the time with their feet or paws, and are intimately connected to the land.
The wheels suggest that the rabbits aren't sensitive this way - they are almost
like machines by comparison, and just want to move along, rather than 'walk'
which involves experiencing things.
Why did you chose that animal to represent the
Aboriginals? We believe a kangaroo would fit a lot better becuse Australia is
internationally known for kangaroos.
To add to a response to an eariler question, I did not want it to be
obvious that these animals even represent Aborigines, let alone that the place
is Australia. Rather, it is Australia-like if you know what I mean. If
everything was too 'literal', or made so that this represents that and so on, I
think people would just identify that and then not think as much about it - like
"Oh yeah, the kangaroos are symbols for Aborigines". I would rather that the
animals are quite strange, and that there is a relationship to Australia and its
history, but not a direct reference to that. I would like it if someone in
Iceland, knowing nothing of Australia, got just as strong a reaction from the
story and recognised it as a quite universal story about colonisation, not just
about Australia.
Why did the lizard
get run over? Does it symbolise that the rabbits care for nothing but
themselves?
Yes, pretty much. Also it was a bit of a joke for myself, that this was the
first ever 'roadkill' in this place.
