No one quite knows how this works or if it has ever been used. The collector was thrilled to find it and insisted on putting it in a national exhibition that she was organizing in 1978. It is a rat-trap constructed by the Giriama people of Kenya out of wood and twine and a large toothpick that snapped the head of the rat in place once it peeked inside. Whether the trap actually belongs in an art museum is a valid question that has no absolute answer.
Wood and fiber
15 3/4 in. (40 cm)
L.: 26 in.
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.1114
Not currently on view
Resources
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Untold Story, November 14, 2003 - November 14, 2004
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
