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Rat Life and Diet in North America, 1968

Frame of a colour film by Joyce Wieland showing fruit and a blue teapot on a table along with a tall white pitcher with the text "RAT LIFE AND DIET IN NORTH AMERICA" on the side.

Joyce Wieland, Rat Life and Diet in North America, 1968, 16mm film, colour, sound, 14 min. 30 sec., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

Rat Life and Diet in North America is a short film that tells a story about rats (actually pet gerbils) held as political prisoners in the United States (their jailer a cat), who make a heroic escape to Canada. Wieland updates the animal fable found in many cultural traditions, where the misadventures of animals are understood as moral or political allegory.


The rodent escapees on Canadian soil stand in for the desires of a peace-loving, anti-war, countercultural generation and the many young American men who were fleeing to Canada to avoid being drafted into the military.

Gallery

Framed mixed-media piece by Joyce Wieland of a loosely hanging canvas, resembling a crumpled bedsheet, with red stains and cut-out canvas hearts applied on top.

Heart On, 1962

Painting by Joyce Wieland divided into a grid of squares, 3 x 3, that are read as a sequence like a film. Starting in the top left, a woman's profile changes backgrounds between a sailboat and a flag, a large number 2 appears, then a car drives by and gets smaller in subsequent frames. Below the grid is the number 8 and another sailboat.

The Battery, 1963

Painting by Joyce Wieland of the faces of a white woman and a black man coming in for a kiss. Below them is a horizontal sequence of squares, like a film strip, showing a moving sailboat, heads in profile, and speech balloons.

First Integrated Film with a Short on Sailing (detail), 1963

Mixed media piece by Joyce Wieland of stacks of multicoloured plastic sleeves encasing various images and small objects ranging from snapshots and mementos to newspaper clippings about the Vietnam War.

Stuffed Movie, 1966

Quilt by Joyce Wieland divided into four quadrants in various shades of purple and yellow surrounded by a border made of orange fabric with a multicoloured heart pattern and a smaller yellow border. Over top are the words "REASON OVER PASSION" made of red, orange, yellow, and pink fabric.

Reason over Passion, 1968

Frame of a colour film by Joyce Wieland showing fruit and a blue teapot on a table along with a tall white pitcher with the text "RAT LIFE AND DIET IN NORTH AMERICA" on the side.

Rat Life and Diet in North America, 1968

Print by Joyce Wieland of rows of red female lip prints, some more open and some more closed, on off-white paper.

O Canada, 1970

Photograph of an open book, made by Joyce Wieland, showing a spread of black and white photographs. On the left-hand page are photocopied fragments of text in several small frames arranged with paperclips overtop illustrations of different leaves. On the right-hand page is a photograph of a trail of footprints in snow leading into a forest.

True Patriot Love, 1971

Still of a colour film by Joyce Wieland showing a man sitting up and looking down at the sleeping figures of a woman. They are in a tent being held up on one side by a white aspen tree.

The Far Shore, 1976

Framed mixed-media piece by Joyce Wieland of a loosely hanging canvas, resembling a crumpled bedsheet, with red stains and cut-out canvas hearts applied on top.

Heart On, 1962

Painting by Joyce Wieland divided into a grid of squares, 3 x 3, that are read as a sequence like a film. Starting in the top left, a woman's profile changes backgrounds between a sailboat and a flag, a large number 2 appears, then a car drives by and gets smaller in subsequent frames. Below the grid is the number 8 and another sailboat.

The Battery, 1963

Painting by Joyce Wieland of the faces of a white woman and a black man coming in for a kiss. Below them is a horizontal sequence of squares, like a film strip, showing a moving sailboat, heads in profile, and speech balloons.

First Integrated Film with a Short on Sailing (detail), 1963

Mixed media piece by Joyce Wieland of stacks of multicoloured plastic sleeves encasing various images and small objects ranging from snapshots and mementos to newspaper clippings about the Vietnam War.

Stuffed Movie, 1966

Quilt by Joyce Wieland divided into four quadrants in various shades of purple and yellow surrounded by a border made of orange fabric with a multicoloured heart pattern and a smaller yellow border. Over top are the words "REASON OVER PASSION" made of red, orange, yellow, and pink fabric.

Reason over Passion, 1968

Frame of a colour film by Joyce Wieland showing fruit and a blue teapot on a table along with a tall white pitcher with the text "RAT LIFE AND DIET IN NORTH AMERICA" on the side.

Rat Life and Diet in North America, 1968

Print by Joyce Wieland of rows of red female lip prints, some more open and some more closed, on off-white paper.

O Canada, 1970

Photograph of an open book, made by Joyce Wieland, showing a spread of black and white photographs. On the left-hand page are photocopied fragments of text in several small frames arranged with paperclips overtop illustrations of different leaves. On the right-hand page is a photograph of a trail of footprints in snow leading into a forest.

True Patriot Love, 1971

Still of a colour film by Joyce Wieland showing a man sitting up and looking down at the sleeping figures of a woman. They are in a tent being held up on one side by a white aspen tree.

The Far Shore, 1976

Rat Life and Diet in North America - Art Canada