dead bunnies are much fun - in theory

[cos]

The Dead Bunny Conjecture.

What is it? You get to make it up. Explain or describe it to me.
(post your entry before reading anyone else's, unless you're stuck)

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Bunnies Deconstructed

[diatom.livejournal.com]

As is widely-understood, the generic bunny has elevated levels of cuteons in its bloodstream, and permeating its person and aura, increasing its protection from Bad Nasties and other troublesome phenomena.

Unfortunately, when one comes upon a quantity of deceased bunnies, the cuteon factor is generally no longer active. Occasionally cuteons will remain, if the bunnies appear alseep, gently resting against a pillow of clover, say, but if blood or bunny guts is visible, the cuteons are no match for the bewildering effect of decomposition.

In the time-lapse video art of Sam Taylor-Wood, we watch a deceased hare hanging poignantly from the wall, with its foot nailed in place. The hare is posed as wall art, above a large dark wooden table displaying one green apple.

Watching the hare picture is a mystical experience: at first it appears we are watching a still photo. After the initial surprise at watching the hare's belly fur apparently roll in waves, one realizes, slowly, that in fact the changes must be a result of decomposers, slowly eating away the flesh. The time-lapse video is set so fast that one cannot see any of the gruesome maggots or real-time flesh-rotting, and the entire experience seems rather comical. As hair and flesh fall away, and the hare is left as a pile of fur and clean bones, one notices that the apple that has been sitting on the table all this time is wholly unaffected.

With the aid of time-lapse video, Taylor-Wood captures the awe of a biological recycling process, while allowing the viewer to maintain the illusion of cuteon intactness. Through reconceptualization, the artist has finally brought a shred of dignity to the otherwise wholesale loss of respect for the dead bunny phenomenon, and perhaps leaves the audience to contemplate use of cuteons in a subjective context, referencing both one's self as consumer, and the desired object of cuteon application, whether furry or skeletal.