Overnight on October 9, a miracle occurred: The beloved St. Rat is now joined by two new furry companions, represented as mosaics and pressed into the water utility building on Cal Anderson Park.
To St. Rat’s closest left now flies a pigeon, holding a rose in its talons as a small congregation of rats look on in worship from the ground below. Farther to the left is now a rat in a blue robe, crying a singular tear. Her name is inscribed as “Mother Rat”, a likely religious allegory to Mother Mary.
Since St. Rat’s popularity grew in both grassroots and Trans communities, and has since been protected from removal by Seattle’s city government, attempts to create companions for the rat have been commonplace.
A fan group of Cis artists attempted to create a goose mosaic alongside the rat, but were politely deterred from doing so by local Trans activists. Another mosaic, of two rats in love, was installed but unfortunately torn down by vandals.
It’s unclear how long “Mother Rat” and the holy pigeon will continue to stand alongside St. Rat, due to a variety of actors who could potentially remove the mosaics. We also don’t know if these mosaics were created by St. Rat’s original artist, who remains anonymous, or by a different artist entirely.
The City of Seattle has sought to partner with the anonymous artist, in hopes of both making St. Rat an official piece of public art and expanding on the original piece, but it’s unclear if they’ve been successful in doing so.
The SGN reached out to Seattle Councilmembers Alexis-Mercedes Rinck and Joy Hollingsworth, who’ve both publicly championed the preservation of St. Rat, on whether “Mother Rat” and the Pigeon are the end result of city partnership. The SGN also asked if the new mosaics would be preserved, or be classified as “graffiti” set for removal.
Rinck and Hollingsworth have yet to respond to the SGN’s request for comment. Return back to this story for further updates.
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