The First Evolutionary Occurrence of Pain

blueprints, electricity, mixed media
120" x 168"
1998

Blueprints of the nervous system of the common land snail - the first animal to evolve pain sensors - are laced with copper. The copper carries electricity to miniature scenes from human existence (a lone car crash, a desolate civic center, an imminent mugging), powering street lights, radio, telephones, and the sound of crickets as a means to illuminate and amplify our interited ability to sense pain and its strange permutations when that ability enters the realm of human experience.