Show & Tell #7

Tesla, as it turns out, did NOT build my freezer.

I felt a twinge of guilt when I found the fly in the corner of my freezer today – curled up in what could only be described as a fly-fetal position.

The inhumane-ness of what I had done brought a memory whooshing to the forefront of my mind.

During my Dynamo studio days mice infested an entire body of fabric-based sculptural work that I had stored in cardboard boxes. Rodent shit and piss everywhere. I was livid. I threw a hairy fit. Cursing and frothing I stomped two blocks to the downtown eastside Army & Navy where I purchased several adhesive tent-type mousetraps.

“Effin’ Mickey’s,” I muttered, “pissing and shitting on my work. I’ll show you – bloody art critics.”

A few days later I did the rounds, checking all the tents to see if I had caught anything.

To my complete horror I had.

Woefully stuck in one of the tents was a wee little grey mouse. All four paws and two thirds of its fur were gripped in the high-tack adhesive. It was still alive. Panic set in. There was no way I could free the little buggar without ripping all its fur out and I couldn’t stomach crushing it with a hammer or drowning it.

So I did what any spineless git would do – I decided I would throw the trap into the garbage, and take the garbage to the dumpster. As I dropped the trap into the bag, the mouse let out a shriek. I started crying.

I sobbed all the way to the dumpster and back. Still blubbering, I collected the remaining tent-traps and threw them in the trash and then I did what I should have just done in the first place: I went and bought a bunch of Rubbermaid Totes to store all my work and supplies in.