Sebastian Nicholas’s Burrinja Café exhibition features a ‘bunnyman’.
By Casey Neill
GIANT cockatoos, a man in a bunny suit and dreamlike landscapes form the basis of Sebastian Nicholas’s latest exhibition.
The Canadian-born Belgrave artist’s show Burst and Bloom is now on display at Burrinja Café Gallery and features drawings, paintings and carved wooden pieces.
Viewers see his ‘bunnyman’ character travel through a series of dreamlike landscapes, interacting with giant cockatoos, gorillas, a chimpanzee and a cat.
“I’m interested in the character of the rabbit as the archetypal trickster,” Mr Nicholas said.
During one boyhood stage he wore a rabbit costume for days on end “enjoying the identity of the bunny”.
“The bunnyman figure has resurfaced many times in my work over the years and now has an added depth considering Australia’s historical relationship with the rabbit,” he said.
“The rabbit is a pest in Australia but people here don’t see themselves in that light, the impact people have had on Australia.”
The 40-year-old freed himself from “the obligation for the scenes to make literal sense”.
“The images are mainly derived from a mixed bag of thoughts, dreams and memories,” he said.
“With all of my work there is a simple fascination with the illusion of an object’s volume and its relationship to the space around it.”
He said a dream about a gorilla frightened him as a child.
“So I gave it a real nurturing sort of thing,” he said.
Mr Nicholas moved to Australia from Canada in 1998, has lived in the Dandenongs for almost five years and has exhibited widely in his native and adopted homelands.
He completed his masters degree in Creative Arts Therapy at RMIT University in 2005 and now works in community arts therapy in Ferntree Gully.
Burst and Bloom is on display at Burrinja Café Gallery, 351 Glenfern Road, Upwey, until 11 July.
