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Soul Hare, 2025

By Miina Vilo ^{Emerging artist}

Painting

150 x 120 cm

€11330

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acrylic on canvas, framed

This painting is the final piece from my graduation series “Alchemy of Puns”*. It was also exhibited at the University of Pallas degree show “LEND 2025” at Gallery Pallas.

“Soul Hare“ is a direct translation of the painting’s title (which is a pun) in Estonian: “Hingehaavikuemand”. “Hingehaav” translates directly to “wound of the soul”, where “hing” means “soul”. Whereas “haavikuemand” is a folk name of the word “rabbit”. When these two words (“hingehaav” and “haavikuemand”) are merged, they create a pun, the title of the painting: “Hingehaavikuemand” (“Soul Hare”).

The painting depicts a hare, whose large battered ears imply she has endured some hardship. Hares are usually active at dusk and dawn. Therefore alchemists considered them dwellers between light and shadow – this realm and the otherside, who could integrate unconscious aspects with the conscious. They were also seen as guides in obtaining the Elixir of Life.

The colour red, which we also see in the ears, is associated with the final phase of the alchemists’ greatest work, the Magnum Opus. Rubedo, or reddening refers to transformation where opposites merge, and an enlightened hermaphrodite is born.

The background of the painting is mixed with golden pigment, as a tribute to the alchemists’ pursuit of turning something less valuable into something precious — into gold. For alchemists, gold symbolized wisdom and the presence of the divine or the universe’s creative force, both within and beyond us, above and below. This inner gold was understood as the realization that all the answers of the universe already exist within us — and that by learning to know ourselves, we also begin to understand the universe as a whole.

*My graduation work titled “Painting Series: Alchemy of Puns” explores the nature and history of puns and alchemy, and seeks connections between them and mental health.

Words hold great power in shaping our reality, but what to do when your inner voice is your worst critic? I turned to puns as a way to quickly transform what had already been said or thought into something more neutral, before the brain had the chance to even register the initial meaning.

So instead of calling myself “human decay”, or a “human wreck” (inimvare), I started calling myself a “human crow” (inimvares) instead. Over time, I hoped this would help eliminate the compulsive thought altogether, and it did! I felt like a modern alchemist who discovered a new transmutation practice.

For my final project, I created three paintings inspired by such puns: Human Crow (wordplay on human decay), Shark In The Head (on mentally ill), and Soul Hare (on wound of the soul). The alchemical symbolism incorporated into the paintings was further explained in the written part of my thesis.