A rat king is a mischief of rats entangled at the tails, forced to live every moment of their lives together.
In the installation Rat King, rats are re-embodied as robots entangled into the neglected spaces of the building that the rats call their home.
The rat king is a phenomenon (possibly an urban legend) where a group of rats' tails become so thoroughly snarled that they form a derived being, a monster conglomerated from many distinct bodies made one.
The rat king is a poor man's cryptozoological creature: you don't have to travel to Loch Ness or the Himalayas to seek it; it might just be in your basement.
Thanks to: Steve Mahler and David Familian
Rat King is one of a series of projects about rats, the built and the grown, and the body and memory that was partially supported by a residency at the Beall Center for Art + Technology.