Rabbit Hole Tables

Rabbit Hole Tables offers the opportunity for people to imagine themselves inhabiting a different place with a friend or stranger, using their hands as avatars. Each of the six tables has a different miniature setting under glass (a dance studio, a beach, a city playground, a fencing piste, a spa massage room, and a croquet court). As the participant sticks their hand into a hole in the side of a table, it becomes a character in the landscape, where it can socialize with other hands: dancing, giving a massage, building sand castles, fencing, playing miniature tetherball or croquet.

This series of six tables was created as a temporary exhibition for the Paradise Valley Community College gallery, which serves as the lobby for their auditorium. I imagined shy people on a date, going to see a show, and created tiny environments for their hands to inhabit together. I liked the idea that your own hand could serve as an avatar for your whole body: projecting yourself both literally and figuratively into these different spaces. The challenge in designing the boxes was to create the widest range of experiences for the hand so that each box would be not only an extension of the concept, but would be a compelling sensual experience in itself.

Date: 2010
Details: Six 4 ft x 2 ft x 2 ft painted wood tables, tempered glass, model materials.
Table Fabrication: Claes Bergman, Neil Borowicz