Jose Esteban Muñoz describes Queerness as “not simply a being but a doing for and toward the future.” As a rejection of a here and now, it insists on the potential and concrete possibility for another world. Unruly and Unresolved is continuously under construction, forming a home in its becoming and unbecoming. From the rats’ experience and resilience, this work is a reflection on the human tendency to intervene, change, and attempt to control ecosystems, and how this tension is reflected in moments of difference within our own species. As my own existence often clashes with the cultural and social structures around me, I relate to beings such as the rats in my neighborhood, scurrying away in the dark; the feeling of being and not quite belonging. Unruly and Unresolved is about growth and persistence through time and a space not made for one’s survival and the many complexities of what it means to exist and imagine alongside the non-human.

In this work, there are prints made directly from the remains of animals found on the road in my current neighborhood in Providence, RI. They are not the obvious roadkill with guts spilling, but the subtle ones that often go unnoticed or ignored. Between the harsh weather and being flattened by cars, most of them eventually fade into the asphalt, ultimately becoming part of the road. Similarly, the video footage in the work brings glimpses into the everyday lives of urban animals in the local community garden; the slow and abrupt demolition of a house nearby resembles the rat burrows that were dug up in the garden: the destruction of a home. The rat pups encountered in the aftermath scatter at a loss and slow confusion, with their future uncertain as they try to survive in this human-dominated space.