Urban Art Association

Street Rats. Banksy? Blek?, by motor on Feb 4, 2017 14:49:13 GMT 1, More like CHRISTY RUPP!

There's been lot of talk about rats by Banksy, Blek le Rat and who is better, more important or was the first.
But what about this girl?
Christy Rupp



Great read about her Rats in NYC from 1980's

...
Christy Rupp: Rats and Other Early Works, 1979 – 1983
By Marc H. Miller


Christy Rupp achieved early fame with her art when a street poster she created became the focus of widespread media attention in 1979 during a contentious, three-week strike by NYC sanitation workers. Animal behavior being the principal subject of Rupp’s art, her eye-grabbing poster featured a rat on the prowl. As the garbage began to pile up in the streets, Rupp began placing her poster in the places where rats were claiming new territory. One such spot, just down the street from her loft in the financial district, became a magnet for the press when witnesses reported that a woman had been attacked there by a pack of rats. Rupp’s posters placed before the incident, provided news photographers with a provocative visual, and when reporters discovered the articulate and photogenic artist who kept a small collection of domestic mice and rats as part of her study of animal behavior, Rupp herself became the focus of their stories.

For a short period following the garbage strike, rats were the main subject of Rupp’s art. In addition to posters, she made small plaster sculptures of rats, which she placed in the street amidst piles of garbage. The imagery fit in well with the profusion of street art found in downtown New York in the years around 1980, a period when the city was near collapse, and an anarchical spirit prevailed among the young artists living in the ruins. Rupp placed her posters not only in locations connected with the habitat of rats, but also in places of commercial and political power like the walls of banks and the steps of City Hall. In this context the rats alluded not only to an ecosystem out of balance but also served as a metaphor for a predatory social system and a world in decay.
...

full article here

More like CHRISTY RUPP!

There's been lot of talk about rats by Banksy, Blek le Rat and who is better, more important or was the first.
But what about this girl?
Christy Rupp



Great read about her Rats in NYC from 1980's

...
Christy Rupp: Rats and Other Early Works, 1979 – 1983
By Marc H. Miller


Christy Rupp achieved early fame with her art when a street poster she created became the focus of widespread media attention in 1979 during a contentious, three-week strike by NYC sanitation workers. Animal behavior being the principal subject of Rupp’s art, her eye-grabbing poster featured a rat on the prowl. As the garbage began to pile up in the streets, Rupp began placing her poster in the places where rats were claiming new territory. One such spot, just down the street from her loft in the financial district, became a magnet for the press when witnesses reported that a woman had been attacked there by a pack of rats. Rupp’s posters placed before the incident, provided news photographers with a provocative visual, and when reporters discovered the articulate and photogenic artist who kept a small collection of domestic mice and rats as part of her study of animal behavior, Rupp herself became the focus of their stories.

For a short period following the garbage strike, rats were the main subject of Rupp’s art. In addition to posters, she made small plaster sculptures of rats, which she placed in the street amidst piles of garbage. The imagery fit in well with the profusion of street art found in downtown New York in the years around 1980, a period when the city was near collapse, and an anarchical spirit prevailed among the young artists living in the ruins. Rupp placed her posters not only in locations connected with the habitat of rats, but also in places of commercial and political power like the walls of banks and the steps of City Hall. In this context the rats alluded not only to an ecosystem out of balance but also served as a metaphor for a predatory social system and a world in decay.
...

full article here