Leonard, Rollin. RAT QUEEN HORSEHAIR. Resin on Photographs, 2016. The work consists of 200 separate pieces more or less, each of which is a photograph printed on vinyl, covered with resin, and individually cut out, comprising photographs of several indivdual female sitters, one of whom occupies each of the extremities of the piece when it is arranged on the wall. 36 x 36 inches (approximate) "Rat King" is a term for a number of rats which become bound together by the tail as a result of becoming entangled in a sticky substance such as blood, knotted in the hair of other animals, or frozen by ice, or some combination of the three. Once thought to be mythical, they are now known to exist, albeit rarely seen. While a collection of rats bound this way might suggest they have the power of a "king" or "queen," they are, in fact doomed by their collective predicament.
