A Kind of Pain consists of a single channel video accompanied by sculpture. The subject of the installation is fish, humankind’s evolutionary ancestors, and fishing. It explores the spiritual and ethical ambiguities of harvesting the aquatic ecosystem. The installation intends to portray the consequential crossover of the natural world and urban society.  

I began thinking about A Kind of Pain when I started recreational sport-fishing several years ago. Lure fishing is a way of capturing fish in their natural habitat by manipulating them. Lures come in a variety of shapes, colors and flavors, playing on the fish’s hyper-sensitivity to fluctuations in water temperature, light, pressure and more. The angler’s gamble necessitates the use of enticing lures, and therefore the craftsmanship of creating lures is, essentially, psychological. The popular notion that pescetarianism is a less cruel way of eating rests on the ideological trusses that fish are not only renewable but also immune to suffering. A Kind of Pain endeavors to explore this paradoxical notion.

Ferris Jabr, contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, wrote “the planet contains a multitude of brains, dense and spongy, globular and elongated…different animal lineages have independently conjured similar mental abilities from very different neural machines.” Does a mind have to be human to suffer? Subjectivity is an inherent concern of my work, and I strive to explore the worlds within our world. A Kind of Pain will give nuanced views of aphenomenal ecosystem that lives in plain sight. New York City, after all, is keenly situated on water, and is deeply influenced by its proximal aquatic worlds.

The film is uncanny, fantastic, quasi-documentary style, portraying various relationships to fish. It features anglers, sushi chefs, an aquarist (aquarium enthusiast), and more.

The sculptural portion of the installation, inspired by the design and function of fishing lures, explores the ideas of desirable objects and tension. Part of the timber is raw, untouched, and the remainder is carved, sanded, finished with paint and resin, designed with real lure-making technique and material. The lure is hang from the ceiling with swivel and stainless steel cable, suspended at eye level. Documentation of the sculpture’s creation is part of the video feed, demonstrating how the work surface was transformed, and how functional tools cross over into artwork.

So much of our relationship to a subject depends on our angle of perception. A Kind of Pain, therefore, challenges our perspectives on our ecosystem, examining what constitutes prey.