Hatti Rees – Inflatable Bunny Suicides Art Piece

Hatti Rees is an award-winning British artist, musician, make-up artist and journalist. Since graduating from the prestigious Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts in London, their ground-breaking artistry has been picked up by a wide range of high-profile figures from Marc Jacobs to Charli XCX and Kim Petras. Looking through their striking images on Instagram, it is not difficult to see why they are considered a pioneer in the world of multimedia.

Hatti is passionate about communicating through self-expression and is unapologetic about empowering those on the margins of society. Their unique style challenges people’s perceptions of a wide range of topical issues including the environment, gender identity and mental health. Through their art, they transform themselves and others into an otherworldly array of characters. With their dazzlingly inventive use of make-up, Hatti creates human works of art that can be horrific and beautiful in equal measure. These artistically mutated characters effortlessly blend vulnerability and determination, conveying a statement of confidence within an unconventional sense of identity.

In 2020, Hatti was invited to create work for an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Breda, Netherlands, formerly known as the Museum of the Modern Image. This national museum of visual culture wanted to give a platform to models who take ownership of their own narratives, using images and stories. Jan Hoek was the curator of the overall exhibition ‘Power to the Models’ whilst Hatti’s featured debut exhibition was entitled ‘Planet Chill Wonderland’.

Hatti’s aim was to platform their non-binary experience through multimedia pieces centring around the theme of transformation. Through their use of images, sculpture, video and sound, they hoped to create a humorous yet dark portrayal of the fluid possibilities of gender and sexuality.

Hatti remarked that they wanted ‘everyone to feel like they’re on acid when they walk through the space.’ They believe that ‘art is meant to change the world, to invigorate our souls and connect people.’ Art has the potential to transform society from the peripheries but it needs to be brave and challenging. But above all, they wanted to ‘bring joy to both the creator and the viewer!’

As part of their vision for the Planet Chill Wonderland exhibition, Hatti had the ambitious idea of creating an enormous inflatable art-piece replicating one of their augmented reality face-filters entitled ‘Bunny Suicides.’ They did a lot of research into inflatables companies in order to find the best team for the job.

Once Hatti made their connection with Glow, which was about five months before the opening of the exhibition, there was a real collaboration in the creative process. Jenny from Glow went through a series of different images and discussed with Hatti their suitability for recreation as a much larger, three-dimensional installation. As much of their artwork involves the manipulation of the human face, Jenny advised Hatti that one of their more graphical images ‘Bunny Suicides’ would be the most appropriate for reproduction as an inflatable. This was to take the form of an augmented-reality face-filter superimposed onto the head of an enormous pink bunny thus creating a stunning, interactive exhibit.

Working with the designers from Glow, the original design was upgraded and ultimately developed into something incredible. Once they had the exact specifications for the space available at the museum, Glow got to work on the production. A selection of carefully engineered white nylon panels were printed with the scaled-up graphics using a pink ink-splatter technique. Care was taken to ensure that the measurements were accurate and the panels would connect seamlessly. Each panel was then hand-stitched together to ensure a high-quality finish before the team inflated the artwork in situ.

Hatti’s original concept was enhanced by the clever addition of an LED glowing eye and an elongated rainbow tongue was added to guide visitors into the bunny’s gaping mouth.

Hatti and the staff of The Stedelijk Museum were overwhelmed by the impact of the finished inflatable ‘Bunny Suicides’ piece. Standing at 3.5 metres tall, its gaping mouth was 75cm at its widest point, allowing visitors to climb under the alarmingly sharp-looking teeth to get inside the bunny’s head.

With its unique combination of humour, darkness and the grotesque, the inflatable ‘Bunny Suicides’ provided an exciting, immersive experience for visitors to the exhibition.

Hatti was really happy with the results, reflecting that as well as respecting the original artwork, the installation was incredibly easy to inflate and set up.