This piece sprang from efforts to reconcile my older work with newer concerns in an attempt to create a third distinct approach. THE MARTYRS OF THE MIND consists of a theatre-likeenvironment, illuminated rather like an antechamber, in which loom pillars of various size bearing small objects. To further enforce the eerie sense of a large scale, the back wall of the chamber holds an aged photograph of seven people standing in a row. Their faces are missing, each supplanted with a letter, forming the word N-E-G-L-E-C-T. Diffuse light thrown from the 'ceiling' of this room imparts a shadowless dread, echoing the stage-like effect.

Leering from a lens over the scene below lurks the most aggressive piece of assemblage in my work to date. An early 20th century bottle stopper in the form of a wooden head has been scorched to blister the paint, revealing an ugly brownish-black visage. Out of the mouth juts several horseshoe crab spines. The eyes are comprised of yellowjacket heads, the hair of steel wool. A pinned moth specimen nestles in its hair. This nightmarish image, coupled with the severe distortion of the lens, reeks of voodoo, of nasty secrets left to fester.