Nick Willing

In the 50s when she was, 40s even, when she was a six-year-old.

It brought it home.

It made it so familiar.

Made it so familiar.

So she thought, ah, I want to do a picture about the Iraq war somehow.

And then she thought about it and she realized that she didn't want to make it with real people because she felt that would be too sentimental, she said.

I think what she meant was that it would be sort of melodramatic.

So she said, oh, I'm going to make it about rabbits.

I use rabbits.

So she made these rabbits out of papier-mâché, these rather grotesque and beautiful rabbits, and covered them in blood.

You see, because you can do anything to rabbits, she said.

You know, they're the epitome of the cute and cuddly thing, and yet we kill them and eat them.

And we don't care if they're covered in blood.

Well...

Maybe we do sometimes.

So you get a sense of the human banality of violence through the death of a rabbit.

So she made these great papier-mâché rabbits and then covered them in blood and then she drew them.

And the pastel, being quite naturalistic, looks like the dolls, but...

There is a sort of distance because it's drawn so beautifully.

So you get this effect, odd effect in this.