Invasive pest in Australia, threatened species at home – portrayals of the European rabbit will be the focus of a Paris residency for Hobart artist Robyn Higgins.
Higgins has been awarded the $10,000 Mary Maxwell Travel Scholarship in Creative Arts and Media and will spend two months at the Rosamond McCulloch Studio in the French capital next year.
The University of Tasmania PhD student will expand on her work Bunny, a series comprising installation, photography, film and drawing. Bunny was inspired by an encounter with a dying rabbit at Montrose just weeks after the release of the biological control Calicivirus.
"The European rabbit hails from Spain and southern France and is actually a threatened species in its place of origin," Higgins said.
"In contrast, the rabbit has thrived in Australia as an invasive pest. It has been given the dubious honour of achieving the fastest known invasion by a mammal anywhere in the world."
Higgins will research how the rabbit has been portrayed in European art, museums and popular culture, and create a film at a conservation program for the species in southern France. She hopes the experience will form the basis of a future Tasmanian exhibition.
"My research is uncovering an incredibly rich local history of human-rabbit entanglements in lutruwita and I anticipate this will be further enriched by my investigations in Paris and regional France," she said.
Higgins is an artist, researcher, lecturer and cultural sector worker who has had roles at Charles Darwin University, the University of Canberra and the National Gallery of Australia, as well as the University of Tasmania.
She has exhibited in Melbourne, Sydney and the Northern Territory and her work is held in collections in Australia, Sweden and the US.
Five artists will undertake residencies in 2025 at the McCulloch Studio, located in the world-renowned Cité Internationale des Arts. They also include: Eddie James (Marie Edwards Travelling Scholarship, $3000), Natasha Bradley (Wayne Brooks Visual Art Travel Prize, $4000), and self-funded recipients Adrienne Eberhard and Sarah Day.
Head of School, Creative Arts and Media Professor Meg Keating said the residency, established in 1991, had allowed many students and alumni the opportunity to study and develop new work in a rich cultural environment.
"This year's recipients again show the creativity and originality that Tasmania and our University's programs are renowned for," Professor Keating said.
"The Rosamond McCulloch Studio Residency is an example of the exceptional experiences we can offer our students and the Tasmanian arts community."
The Cité complex, home to 300 studios, is owned by universities and arts organisations from around the world. The McCulloch Studio is situated in an eighteenth-century town house within the complex within walking distance to major galleries including the Louvre.
The Rosamond McCulloch Studio Residency is open to visual artists, musicians, performers and writers who are University of Tasmania honours or postgraduate students, and alumni working in the creative arts.
