It is at this point that Lane later admitted in a rare 2023 interview (published in The Journal of Pain and Performance ) that she “stopped being Ashley.” The Pain Bunny, she claimed, is a dissociative survival mechanism that feels no ownership of the body. “The bunny has no future,” she said. “The bunny only has now. And now is always the same amount of pain.” At 11:47 PM CEST on 24.06.2021 , the 14th hour arrived. The electric stimulus had reached 33mA. Lane had not spoken a word for over eight hours. Her lips were cracked. Her knees had locked. The lullaby had long since faded into a silent, open-mouthed breath.
Direct quotes from Ashley Lane are drawn from The Rabbit Hole (Self-published, 2024) and the Journal of Pain and Performance , Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023). Archival footage of “-Deeper-” is not publicly linked here due to its graphic nature but is cataloged under EU performance art archive code: BER-240621-AL. -Deeper- Ashley Lane - Pain Bunny -24.06.2021-
She was released from the on-site medical tent at 2:00 AM on June 25, 2021. Her first words as Ashley Lane were reported to be: “Did we get it?” The “-Deeper-” performance remains deeply polarizing. Feminist critics have argued that the “Pain Bunny” persona plays into a long, grim history of female suffering as spectacle—a digital-era freak show where women hurt themselves for the male gaze. Others, including performance theorist Dr. Helena Voss, counter that Lane’s radical control over the parameters (she built the circuit herself, she designed the box, she wrote the press release) repositions the work as an exploration of post-human endurance. It is at this point that Lane later
By hour 6, the ears are fully attached. Her face has changed. Not in expression, but in affect. The grimace has softened into something worse: acceptance. And now is always the same amount of pain
This article dissects the symbolism, the performance, and the lasting impact of the “-Deeper-” project, focusing on the enigmatic figure of Ashley Lane and her transformation into the “Pain Bunny.” Before June 2021, Ashley Lane was a known but peripheral figure in the underground “suspension art” scene—a community where artists use hooks, weights, and controlled physical stress to explore altered states of consciousness. Her early work focused on geometric body suspensions and the aesthetics of controlled decay. However, the persona of the “Pain Bunny” marked a sharp narrative departure.
By hour 9, the “Pain Bunny” is fully present. She does not flinch at the stimulus (now at 29mA, well beyond therapeutic levels and into the range of acute discomfort). Instead, she begins a slow, repetitive rocking motion. Witnesses in the chat log (preserved by a digital archivist known as @endurance_records) noted that she began to hum a lullaby out of tune. The humming was not a cry for relief. It was a nursery rhyme for herself—a mothering of the suffering self.
She did not press the final button. Instead, the production team—following the pre-agreed safety protocol—cut power to the box and entered with a medical team. Lane did not resist, but she also did not respond to her own name. For 47 minutes, she answered only to “Bunny.” She was treated for mild dehydration, contact burns on her hand, and a transient dissociative fugue.