RICKELS' ESSAY Crockett Fortune Katz Pearlstein Robinson Shaw Tapola Weaver Welch

BRYAN CROCKETT Cat/Rat Crockett describes his approach as "part genetic engineering, motion picture special effects and taxidermy." But the effect is of two animals that seemingly exist in the same skin-neither cat nor rat. Poised like a dime-store china figurine, only in jumbo scale, Cat/Rat's eyes are fitted with chrome balls that "interface" with viewers who can see their own image reflected in the pupils. "The image is an experiment, of course, and a fantasy-made palpable by scale (life-size) and pose (sitting like a lap-dog) and pushing more than one button at the same time. "In this work I'm playing with the puppet strings of the superman and using them to uproot new creatures," says Crockett, defining a new relation of art and man, "Fallen and nude, they are in search of new masters, like sappy eyed pets at the local pound waiting for some drooling collector to come by and spiriualize them." - Brian Crockett adapted from a review by Patricia Rosoff, The Hartford Advocate - January 18, 1996