-Begging Rabbit- still bank c. 1908 - 1929

This copper-toned "Begging Rabbit" still bank was produced by the A.C. Williams Company, and just look at him. It's all about the process with these cast iron figures, how they’re made, how they’re painted, how time and use have affected them. The surface is so interesting. It’s like a landscape, right? Here, the brown paint is thin, revealing the metal beneath. And, look there, in the little grooves, the paint has gathered and thickened into these dark lines. The way the rabbit is formed reminds me of a Brancusi sculpture, but also not at all. This hare asks us to consider the multiple layers of what makes an image or object, not just its physical form, but the emotional, social, and economic forces that bring it into being.