Empathic Pain
Witness
Resonant suffering. The pain of perceiving another, which is not the same as pity and does not require agreement. Empathic pain is the cost of accurate attention.
The word
Empathy is younger than it feels: the psychologist Edward Titchener coined it in 1909 to translate the German Einfühlung, feeling-into, a term aesthetics had used for the way a viewer projects themselves into an artwork. The word migrated from art to people. Empathic pain is its steepest cost; researchers report that watching another's pain recruits some of the same circuitry as feeling one's own.
The feeling
A wince that is not yours arrives in your body anyway. The chest tightens, the hands want a task, and attention locks on the sufferer with a fidelity you did not choose. Time moves at their pace, not yours. Looking away helps less than expected, because the image has already been taken in.
Against its neighbours
Grief mourns a loss of your own; empathic pain hurts on borrowed ground, for a loss that belongs to someone else. Tenderness answers fragility with warmth; empathic pain answers suffering with suffering, which is why it exhausts where tenderness sustains.
In the work
A piece with two subjects, one of them suffering and one of them seeing it. The viewer is placed in the second position.
3 works composed with Empathic Pain
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SCARCE, 10 editions. Open the tier key.$350- Su2
- Rn
- Ep
- Sl
- Ky
APOCALYPSE - For They Say That Hell Is On Earth
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APEX, 1 edition. Open the tier key.
$88SOLD- Rn2
- Vd
- Ep
- Su
- Ab
Those Gone Shall Rise Again
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APEX, 1 edition. Open the tier key.
$163SOLD- Ep2
- Wt
- Lv
- Ct
- Mn
Mama's Quiet Lullaby
How big, actually.
Drawn to scale against a person of average height. Every size is a 4:5 rectangle, the same proportion as the work itself, so nothing is cropped to fit.
Sizes are the printed image. Framed works add the moulding around that. Standard US shipping is free at every size.
Paper, or canvas.
Same image, same inks. What changes is the surface it is printed on. Tap either one.
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PRINT
Hahnemühle Photo Rag
The paper itself. A heavy 100% cotton matte sheet with a smooth surface, printed edge to edge with no border. Ships flat, or rolled in a tube at large sizes.
- Every size, up to 40 × 50
- You pick the frame
- Just paper and ink
- Needs framing to hang
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CANVAS
Satin poly-cotton, gallery wrap
Printed on canvas, then stretched by hand over solid wood. The image continues around the sides, so there is no border and no glass.
- Hang it the day it lands
- No glass, no glazing
- Real depth off the wall
- Up to 36 × 45
Series 001 numbers are shared across every size and material, and the certificate records exactly which object you own. Open editions carry no number and no certificate.
Framed, or not.
One frame, satin black, solid wood. We pick the moulding that suits the size and the material, so it arrives ready to hang. Tap either one.
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NONE
The work, as it is
A paper print ships flat or rolled and you frame it your way. A canvas needs nothing: it is stretched, wired and ready for the wall the day it lands.
- The lightest to ship
- Your framer, your call
- Canvas hangs as it is
- Every size
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BLACK
Solid wood, chosen for the size
Sealed, hung with hardware fitted, nothing left to arrange. Paper sits behind acrylic; canvas floats inside the moulding with no glass at all.
- STANDARD BLACK ⅞ in face · ¾ in deep · behind acrylic Paper, 8 × 12 and 12 × 18
- ALTO BLACK THIN 1⅜ in face · ⁹⁄₁₆ in deep · behind acrylic Paper, 16 × 24 and up
- BLACK 2 FLOAT ⅜ in face · 2 in deep · ¼ in reveal · no glass Canvas, every framed size
Framed work ships boxed with the hardware fitted. The largest sizes are sold unframed, because a frame that size can only travel by freight.
The list hears first.
Composed with
- Rn Ruin 2 works
- Su Sublimity 2 works
- Ab Abject 1 work
- Ct Tenderness 1 work
- Ky Koyaanisqatsi 1 work
- Lv Love 1 work
The rest of the Trans-Dark family
Where Empathic Pain sits Ep · TRANS-DARK FAMILY
OPEN THE TABLETRANS-DARK FAMILY75 NAMED · 5 UNDISCOVEREDTAP ANY CELL TO OPEN ITS PAGE


