"Pinned Lab Rat" aka "We Are the Mouse" Aaron Bleidt

Pinned Lab Rat aka We Are the Mouse, 2022

Original freehand digital drawing and cold press pigment ink print

30 x 20”

$1,305.00

The idea for this piece first came about (in my mind) during the COVID pandemic, when it felt like we were all lab rats (“we are the mouse”) with the feeling of being “pinned” or stuck or under the metaphorical microscope — but I set it aside and didn’t resume work on it until the latter part of 2022. It was about this same time I had also come to realize this metaphor can be applied to many of life’s challenges, certainly not limited to a pandemic.

My imagination ran wild with this one, but I wanted to handle this piece delicately. I wanted there to be an innate (but not overly intimidating) sense of tension and perhaps even a touch of precipice; but in literal terms I certainly didn’t want to convey a sense of physical pain on an animal, not even on a “beastly” rat. I wanted it to feel more like an examination, not like an extermination. This is actually why I added a padded element to the business end of the pin, cushioning the pinch around the tail but still in control – just adding a touch of softness to help balance the gravity of what may initially appear to be solely a tense interaction. We (humanity) are the rat, and the clothespin represents both the larger social order and authority (society at large), but also our own personal social responsibilities. The cushion is the “knowing that it will all be okay and that this test will surely be over soon.” 

Or…maybe there’s no metaphor at all…maybe it’s just a cool rat in a mildly domineering dance with a random clothespin – I’ll let the viewer be the judge.