Fingerbunny is for fingerbunny - 2010

I can't believe a fingerbunny is
playing me the shortbus soundtrack - 2010

Fingerbunny is a fingerbunny and not much else.

I first met Fingerbunny in 2007 in Bath.
I walked up to the gallery space to see an exhibition by Amy Day.
The Fingerbunny was quiet and didn't do much, it's not alive.
Fingerbunny looked like a novelty toy, cute and innocent.
Last year Amy changed her artistic direction again
and started to design latex clothing under the name AM-Statik.


These two short series are a parody of using a prepubescent girl
to pose in deadpan photos that are full of eroticism. This genre
of photography/art is so popular but I'm left unsettled by a
lot of it, because the intellect forces presumptions past
the carnal-obvious.

We are all prey to our sexual desires.
I've used fingerbunny in lieu of a model, posed in all these
everyday settings, just hanging out, and it looks cute. But it's
to bring sexual reference to each scene, turn the model into the
embodiment of sexual desire/interaction. Removing gender or
even association with humans, but keeping association with sex.

Pretty much it's taking Amy's concept and putting it in
a new situation.

I'm building on it for my own vanity.

"Finger Bunny is a childrens character based on an erotic hand gesture
that was banned from several american schools.
After researching sexual innuendo I decided to create a cartoon series
of products, chocolates, sculptures and even a costume based on several
things I discovered.

The most popular was finger bunny; a rabbit shaped creature based on the
finger gesture "two in the pink one in the stink", a sexual gesture.

I then used finger bunny as a childs' toy making plush toys and a mascot costume.
It was to depict childrens' innocence and the way in which they see the world at
a young age.

Something children dont know or understand about doesnt affect the way they see
something in the world. If a bright coloured google eyed character is there, it
is a playful item not anything associated with sex. Even though it has a sexual
meaning.

The project had mixed reviews where some people loved the concept and appreciated
my attention to detail in over merchandising and spawning a cartoon character out
of something so vulgar. Others told me I was encouraging paedophilia and showing
the way children have no innocence and are growing too fast.

To me it was about sex and innocence combined to create an over-commercialized
artistic series which drew from many influences in everyday life, and how we are
here to reproduce on this planet. So sex and sexuality is everywhere whether
children and adults know it or not."

-Amy Day