Ballantrae Park Bunnies

These bunnies created by British sculptor Sophie Ryder, live in Ballantrae Park in Dublin, Ohio. If you thought, like me, that they were frolicking rest assured that we are… very wrong. These hares are performing an aggressive dance for the love of the ladies and rights to the lushest, most nutritious four-leaf clovers. You know, luck-of-the-Irish stuff.

As cute as these bunnies look from afar, Ryder’s work feels very sinister up close. Her statues often depict anthropomorphic figures that are just too human for comfort. She coined the concept of the bunny/ woman hybrid as a counterpoint to the Minotaur. Sometimes they are lovers other times they seem in competition. As Ryder developed her work, “Lady Hare” emerged as essentially human underneath a mask which raises a bunch of questions about human nature, women’s fertility, and our dependency on the phases of nature.