Asad Raza Creates Public Art for New York City's Rats in 'thigmotaxis (the rat show)'

Asad Raza's latest project, 'thigmotaxis (the rat show)', involved creating and installing sculptures designed specifically for rats across more than 20 locations in New York City. The project was initiated when Raza was invited by the alternative art space times to create an exhibition. Instead of a traditional gallery show, Raza focused on the city's non-human ecosystem, particularly its estimated 3 million rats. Throughout August, Raza and three fellow artists—Devyn Gallindo, Kunning Huang, and Jared Packard—installed sculptural components made of concrete, wood, and burlap in areas such as Seward Park, the Lower East Side, under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, near the Natural History Museum, and in Times Square. Trail cameras captured the rats' interactions with the sculptures. To inform the designs, Raza consulted animal behaviorist Michael Parsons and MIT architects Mara Jovanović and Zaynab Eltaib, advised by Jaffer Kolb. The sculptures feature textured concrete surfaces, balloon-like forms creating passageways, and materials that hold scents, catering to rats' thigmotaxis—their sensitivity to contact with solid surfaces. The exhibition at times, on view until December 12, displays the sculptures, a human-sized wall for visitors to experience thigmotaxis, and video documentation of the rats. Raza described the project as 'a little bit of a love letter to New York.'