A$AP Rocky stars in his own performance art piece, Lab Rat

Date
22 May 2018

A$AP Rocky starred in his own performance art piece Lab Rat, which took place at Sotheby’s New York on Sunday (20 May). The musician wore a high-visibility, orange jumpsuit designed by Calvin Klein as he adopted the role of an experiment participant or subject, much like a lab rat.

The performance featured the Harlem rapper inside a giant glass box while he completed a series of tasks with the help of laboratory workers. The assignments included eating hot peppers, doing pull-ups and talking about the challenges that occur when creating new music. The 90-minute show was broadcast live from the New York venue.

Lab Rat is part of an ongoing collaboration between the world-renowned auction house and A$AP Rocky. The partnership was initiated with a video for Sotheby’s #FearlessNow film series that celebrates boundary-pushing creatives from the 19th century to today. The first video, which launched earlier this month, featured A$AP in dialogue with Ai Weiwei about what it means to be fearless in the creative industry.

Lab Rat was staged ahead of the release of A$AP’s upcoming album Testing, with the rapper unveiling the cover art on the same night.

Above

Courtesy of Sotheby’s

Above

Courtesy of Sotheby’s

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Daphne Milner

Daphne has worked for us for a few years now as a freelance writer. She covers everything from photography and graphic design to the ways in which artists are using AI.

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