biographical installation and living sculpture. (#2)

My project changed a lot since that proposal; a lot can happen in a day. I've decided I want to take only this one little snippet of a story about Tod and his pet rat, instead of focusing on several times of his life. Here, I'll summarise the story for you just to get the point across: He had a pet rat named Ratty I also lived with in addition to Tod. Friends gave her to Tod at a time when Tod was feeling trapped so to speak, and maybe needed a friend or a responsibility or something. Five months later, in September, when we moved out, Tod moved into the house where my ex and his ex-boyfriend at one time lived, just after my ex and I broke up. A scandal in itself. One day, Tod decided that Ratty would be happier freed, so he opened the cage door and let her go on her merry way. She chose to live in the garage, and Tod would sporadically toss food in there for her. Maybe a week later, his roommate (my ex's ex) told him that the neighbors said Ratty bit one of them. It was strange to hear this—how would they have encountered Ratty in the garage?—but Tod shrugged and figured the best of it. A week or two later, Tod and Alex Castle (a friend of ours) were walking outside, near Ratty's old cage, when they noticed inside the cage: Ratty's bloated corpse. The neighbors had found her and put her back in the cage, but got bit in the process. Then, she was in there unbeknownst to Tod and starved to death.

Anyhow, I've always seen this story as an interesting parallel to Tod's life. He's constantly attempting to liberate himself from the confines of our culture/society. Having Tod live in a gallery is like putting Ratty back in the cage. Tod feels that he "performs" less in his life than most people do, because he doesn't sensor himself or his decisions. He recognises the illogic of some of his decisions, but feels that they were the best choices he could make at those instances. Tod won't perform anything, just be in the space. The audience will read this story and a short description of Tod's life-decisions, and then they will see Tod in the space, and nothing else. And there will be audio of a conversation between me and Tod; it explains Tod's desire for freedom and his feelings about art. If his experiences are his art, and I'm creating an experience for him, then isn't this installation his art?

(Note: I'm not entirely sure I'm expressing Tod's opinions perfectly, or if I have Ratty's story right, but I'm having a hard time getting a hold of Tod to verify it all.) Six hours ago, Tod texted me saying "I ain't goin'!" So, if not, I just came up with a Plan B, which would be a very similarly designed piece about my mother. I spent all evening griping and whining, because I really wanted to do the Tod installation.