A penitentiary might seem an unlikely place to find inspiration, but that is precisely where N. S. Harsha stumbled the motivation behind his painting Secular Bites, 2021. Row upon row of rats nibble and chew a variety of fabrics, some bearing crosses and swastikas, others resembling national and Formula 1 flags. On a visit to the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney five years ago, the artist discovered that even the rats’ nests had been carefully preserved in an effort to re-create the convicts’ miserable living conditions. He was struck, in particular, by the rats’ indiscriminate choice of material