How to Explain Magic to a Dead Rabbit

Archetypal narratives bubble beneath the surface in Wendy Given’s demure, fantastic works, offering a hidden strata of meanings to viewers enticed by her interpretations of potential magic. Given embeds and collages story into image and sculpture from every corner of the supernatural map, referencing in this exhibition everything from Alice In Wonderland, to Yeti, to the medieval witch craze that plagued northern Europe. Aiming to produce work that “resonates in the deep, dark and unstable ground between consciousness and collective memory,” Given hopes that this mash-up reflects modern culture’s mode of assimilating and processing myth. While her subject matter dwells on the archaic, her aesthetic, reflected especially in her clean, crisp and processed C‑print photography, is distinctively contemporary.

How To Explain Magic to a Dead Rabbit, named after Joseph Beuys’ 1965 performance How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, is an exploration into recognizable fairy tales and legends as a means to excavating and applying their remaining root values, humor and beauty to our mundane existence. These photos and sculptures include remnants of the performances and rituals Given underwent to transfer her curiosities about her supernatural subjects into the artworks. In this, her works have an air of convincing documentary, as if the artist spied on that which remains unseen to average passersby. Part amusement park, part rare glimpse into secret, charmed territory, Given predicts a new approach to observing what she calls the “otherworldly in the everyday.”

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—Trinie Dalton
P. pistillaris, 2013
The Tutelary, 2013
C-print
40 x 40 inches
Edition of 3


To a Mouse, 2010
To a Mouse, 2010
C-print
40 x 40 inches
Edition of 3


Turn Your Back to the Forest, Your Front to Me, 2010
Turn Your Back to the Forest, Your Front to Me, 2010
C-print
30 x 40 inches
Edition of 3


Father to the Thought, 2010
Father to the Thought, 2010
C-print
20 x 20 inches
Edition of 3


Wake, 2010
Wake, 2010
C-print
40 x 60 inches
Edition of 3


And a Pale Horse, 2010
And a Pale Horse, 2010
C-print
30 x 30 inches
Edition of 3


on myth and magic no. 8: ignis fatuus, 2010
on myth and magic no. 8: ignis fatuus, 2009
C-print
30 x 30 inches
Edition of 3


Hidden Mother, 2012
Besom, 2010
C-print
30 x 45 inches
Edition of 3


By the Boat of Charon
By the Boat of Charon, 2010
C-print
40 x 60 inches
Edition of 3


of augur and auspice: no. 5 (from under the pillow), 2009
of augur and auspice: no. 5 (from under the pillow), 2009
C-print
40 x 40 inches
Edition of 3


i am that merry wanderer of the night, 2010
i am that merry wanderer of the night, 2010
C-print and swarovski crystal rhinestones
30 x 45 inches
Edition of 3


How to Explain Magic to a Dead Rabbit, 2011
How to Explain Magic to a Dead Rabbit, 2011
C-print
16 x 24 inches
Edition of 3