The artist, Lucas Michael, was life-cast for a portrait early in the 21st century. The torture commenced almost immediately. Lucas eventually succumbed and his head was carefully run almost clean-through with a javelin-like display shaft. Thecranium was subsequently stretched and scaled (by factors of 3.5 and 0.75, respectively), then realized several years later in a multicolored, marbled, undeniably meaty cut of Pakistani onyx. Note the severely distended lip (he's dead), exaggerated head-top impalement protuberance (he's really dead), and stylized vulval neck viscera (the little death). Due to the conflation of flesh and stone, there is some question as to whether what we now see is either. And, of course, there is the matter of intent...

(Two years after its initial completion, the artist elected to subtly disfigure the work by drenching it with a dense rain of lachrymal / salivary / sanguine polish passages.)

2000 - 2006, 2008

Pakistani Onyx, stainless steel

stone / shaft / column assembly: 82 x 5-1/2 x 6-5/8 in (208.3 x 14.0 x 16.8 cm)
stone figure: 43-1/2 x 5-1/2 x 6-5/8 in (110.5 x 14.0 x 16.8 cm)