roach+world
Taeer M
Through Jul312026

Rats, roaches, pigeons, flies, cats, and even squirrels all originate from lineages that date back millions of years. Asteroid impacts, bubbling heat, fuming gas, acid rain, ice sheets, glacial sculpting, mass extinction, oxygen-starved oceans, toxic seas, endless lava flows, and still they continued to evolve. Today, in their synurbic form, they thrive in the big city. roach+world is a peep-hole view into the universe of these cosmopolitan characters. Meet World, Roach, Rat, Cat, Death Fly, Pigeon, Squirrel, Building, and Fruit Fly as they laugh, cry, cruise, collaborate, dream, go crazy, and go to the corner store.

World and Roach have been dating for 300 million years. Their relationship has endured dynamic ebbs and flows and psychocyclical blows that many deem impossible to work through. If Roach and World were astrological signs, they would be opposite each other on the zodiacal wheel. They sit across from each other, and cannot be seen by anyone else as clearly as they see one another. Like looking into a mirror, they see an exact reflection of themselves in reverse.

Nothing hits quite like the comfort of being truly seen while rubbing up against the tension of being so different. World could be a Leo (the One) and Roach might be an Aquarius (the Group)? Or maybe World, more obviously, is a Taurus (the Reliability of Stable Ground) and Roach is a Scorpio (the Intensity of Unavoidable Transformation). Interested in hearing your take! Astrology aside, they are clearly two sides of the same coin, and that coin is flipping so fast in the air that each of its sides blurs into the other, until it looks like a small bouncy ball floating without gravity... And everycat knows that those bouncy balls are the most exciting and unpredictable ball there is! So basically, their relationship is the actual meaning of eternity, it is the pillar of hope in their community, and if they break up, so does everything else.

Rat is a hypersocial swimmer who must explore both the deep and shallow ends of the dating pool. Her flexible skeleton helps her squeeze in and out relationship statuses. She always smells like gum because she is addicted to it, and is also known as ‘Buffjaw’ due to her throbbing masseter muscle.

The fluttering sound of 200 wing flaps per second. Death Fly is shimmering. A vision so unique, it’s like a tiny flickering gas flame where you can only see the blue part that somehow survives in the center of a juicy drop of mildew. Stressful!! And so unbelievably gorgeous, because what even is that?! She is the embodiment of the widest dolly zoom there ever was. Laser-focused glare into her crimson compound eyes, her face holds the spotlight and the environment goes from ordinarily near to incomprehensibly vast, and back again and again. That’s the first and last impression she’s giving to those who can comprehend.

Apparently she’s the only one who can match Roach and World’s essence of eternity. Took them long enough to notice… but all of a sudden she is squatting the unit in the back of their minds. She sits there in the dark, day and night, writing down secrets while listening to her new favorite “Sound of an Electric Car Passing By” on repeat. Emerging into their clarity as a trifecta, their three honeyed vocals harmonize the high notes of mystery with the low notes of mundane Huuuuuuuhhhh

“Byeeeee,” Rat walks off, heading to the corner store to get more gum… And that is where Rat meets Cat.

Taeer M (born Brooklyn, NY) will present new works on paper featuring a cast of anthropomorphic characters living in a familiar metropolis and has previously exhibited at Company Gallery as part of the GUSH collective exhibition in October 2025.