The First Evolutionary
Occurrence of Pain

blueprints, electricity,
mixed media
10´ x 14´
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 (an imminent mugging, a car crash, a desolate civic center), powering street lights, radio, telephones, 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.