Quote:
"When [Joyce] Wieland claimed she 'couldn't make aesthetic statements in New York any more,' this was not because other artists in the U.S. did not share her political views [...]. Circa 1971, it seemed that politicized artists in the U.S. had no choice, however, but to make art that was critical, angry, and oppositional. In Canada, Wieland foresaw the possibility of making art that was equally politically-engaged, yet profoundly different because it was affirmative and utopian, and because it was participating in a larger project to reinvent the nation. Rat Life and Diet in North America announced the emergence of a different kind of political art."
-- Johanne Sloane

Source:
Sloane, Johanne. "Joyce Wieland at the Border: Nationalism, the New Left, and the Question of Political Art in Canada." Journal of Canadian Art History 26 (2005). (p. 88)