Artist: Christy Rupp
Artist Nationality: American
Artist Dates: b. 1949
Title: Rat Poster (Part of Rat Patrol campaign, NYC)
Date: 1979
Condition:
Medium: Offset lithograph
Dimensions: 17.375 x 5.75 in.
Estimated Value:
Signature/Markings:
About the art:
"The city has its own ecosystem with a delicate balance. Soon after moving to the city, I became a fascinated observer of rat behavior, watching for patterns in feeding, social interaction, and population movement. The garbage strike of 1979 went on for 3 weeks, creating habitat opportunity with every accumulating pile of garbage. I started pasting these up as a way to mark areas that were infested, so people could avoid walking through dangerous areas in which rats were defending their territories. I “borrowed” a sanitation ad from a subway car of this lifesize rat and had it offset printed. Never intending to defend rats, I wanted to point out how we had created a habitat for them, and they would naturally occupy it.
It has been said that rats possess a culture—if you define culture as the ability to pass information through generations without direct experience—such as a fear of predators and pesticides. Humans and elephants are the only other species that can do that." - Christy Rupp
About the artist:
Christy Rupp burst onto the New York art scene with “Rat Patrol,” a street art response to the sanitation strike of 1979. The artist’s offset prints were widely featured by the press after an unidentified woman was attacked by a pack of rats in downtown Manhattan. Rupp — who describes herself an ecoartist — envisioned the work as a public service, a visual reminder that the streets are a delicate ecosystem.
Rupp was a cohort of Collaborative Projects Inc. (Colab) and ABC No Rio, participating in seminal exhibitions such as the Times Square Show (1980). Whilst working at the American Museum of Natural History, Rupp collaborated with Dr. Betty Faber, an entomologist and roach behavior expert who shared her interest in didactic and educative work. Rupp’s recent bodies of work include Extinct Birds Previously Consumed by Humans (2008), sculptures comprised of fast food poultry bones, and Half Life (2014), sculptures of mammals fashioned from credit card solicitations. Rupp lives and works in Chelsea. Our interview was frequently (albeit pleasingly) interrupted by her cat Eartha, and her dog Lily. Rupp is represented by the Frederieke Taylor Gallery.
Bio written by Tiernan Morgan, "Christy Rupp on Rats, Geese, and the Ecology of Public Art" via hyperallergic.com
https://hyperallergic.com/christy-rupp-on-rats-geese-and-the-ecology-of-public-art/
Additional information sourced from christyrupp.com
Provenance:
Private New York Collection
Exhibition History:
Publication History: