two kitties: How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare

A few years ago, I went to Harvard for a job interview and got really lucky. I didn't get the job but wound up with an afternoon free of appointments and plenty of time to head over to the University's Busch-Reisinger Museum.

The museum holds some of the world's finest examples of German expressionism as well as a comprehensive catalogue of Joseph Beuys' work. Supervised by a curatorial assistant, I was allowed to select some of the Beuys' multiples from the archives and have them brought out to me in the study room.

At that time, I was interested in how artists were using materials like essential oils in assemblage to engage the viewers sense of sight AND smell. So I chose Postcards 1968-1974, which incorporates beeswax, and Smell Sculpture, 1978, which soaked letters in a preserving jar with rosemary, thyme, and lavender oils and a scoop of wheat germ.

It was a great day, and I've never forgotten it. So when I came across a "Beuys Bunny" for sale at das kaninchen, I snapped it up for the sake of my memories. das kaninchen's bunnies refer to Beuys' most famous and most controversial piece of performance art, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965).

For Dead Hare, Beuys covered his face in honey and goldleaf, then wandered Dusseldorf's Galerie Alfred Schmela carrying a dead rabbit in his arms. As he walked, he appeared to be explaining art in the gallery to the rabbit.

Many consider(ed) Beuys to be a charlatan, but regardless of what you think of his creative abilities, interest in his work endures. Dead Hare was reenacted as recently as 2005 by Marina Abramovic as part of "Seven Easy Pieces" at Guggenheim New York.

Beuys' better known works are made of animal fat and felt, materials that had a special significance for the artist. After his fighter plane crashed in Crimea during World War II, Beuys claimed to have been rescued by Tartars who healed his wounds by covering his body with fat and felt which miraculously healed him. (The crash happened, but the Tartar story was never confirmed.)

The honey used in Dead Hare also symbolised something significant to Beuys. He considered honey to be a spiritual food that contained particles from every part of the environment - sun, plant, and mineral. He considered bees a "venus cult" and the only link between earth and heaven.

My new Beuys bunny is now in the studio to remind me of some of Beuys' writing that I copied down that afternoon at Busch-Reisinger:

"Art is not there to provide knowledge in direct ways. It produces deepened perceptions of experience. Multiples are often just suggestions. You can describe a thing, say something about its intentions. That's how to get closest to the pure that leaves something in the things so they can have some effect. There is a more in them that means they appeal to more than understanding."