To commemorate the Year of the Rabbit, Woolloongabba Art Gallery is staging On Repeat. The exhibition features the participatory artwork Second Nation, which is facilitated by Pamela See (Xue Mei-Ling), and Free Alba 2.0 a digital artwork by Robert Mercer. The latter marks the 20th anniversary of the death of a rabbit, called Alba, who was genetically engineered to glow in the dark. Around this time, Robert coded a field of infinite fluorescent Albas viewed by an encroaching 3D camera. Their forms progressively become identifiable through the duration of the program. Free Alba 2.0 is a recoded and recompiled version to work on modern systems in high quality widescreen. It speaks to the pervasive nature of both rabbit reproduction and technological development.
Second Nation invites visitors to the gallery to collect a papercut rabbit and paste it up in their home or community. As a gesture of good will, it is asked that online posts include an acknowledgement of country. To the Chinese, the rabbit is a symbol for mercy. Twenty-four designs are being distributed, in reference to the 1859 release of two dozen by the British settler Thomas Austin in Djillang (Geelong). These pairs formed the basis of a population which would spread across the country. The project is designed to recognise both Lunar New Year and the anniversary which the First Nations people of Australia refer to as “Invasion Day”.
