DepARTment of Corrections
April 25, 2017 1:04 PM   Subscribe

 
Huh. Some of those were pretty good! Reading the text I was expecting some paper mache bowls made from release forms or blown up IDs. that quadrant one struck me, and since he explained out as influenced by P.E., then I'm certainly on board.
posted by lkc at 1:52 PM on April 25, 2017


Thank you for sharing. Right of Return is an exciting program.
posted by SyraCarol at 2:51 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Through his connection to another formerly incarcerated artist, Jesse Krimes, ...

I wonder how the police knew it was him.
posted by Literaryhero at 2:16 AM on April 26, 2017


With the exception of Craig’s face, the largest portion of this painting is his inmate ID number, HP9290. “When you go to prison, you become that number. My identity, who I was, didn’t matter. You become like an item. Like property. I wanted to bring that to people’s attention.”

I've heard this often from inmates and formerly incarcerated individuals, but that wasn't my experience. Being reduced to a number--my social security number, actually--is something I've experienced far more routinely and with greater effect outside prison than it was something I felt while I was locked up.

The prison I was in (medium security, New York state) was a small group of people, less than most communities, let alone towns or cities, even when inclusive of both guards and inmates. If anything, that isolation made individual identity more significant than it's been at any other time in my life. You pretty much knew everybody you came in contact with during the course of a day, and most of the time I didn't have any idea what their number was.

I think, to a great degree, the same was true of COs. They might be more likely to know an inmates number, or interact with them based on that number, then inmate-to-inmate contact. But for guards as well, most interactions with inmates seemed to be influenced (for better and for worse) on their feelings for you as an individual, rather than an interchangeable item.

Maybe that's why Craig's work doesn't have particular resonance for me. I don't find it's saying anything profound about the experience of incarceration.
posted by layceepee at 5:43 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


I was able to attend that exhibition here in Philly last year and it was pretty great. Mostly full of people looking for the Banksy piece. I really enjoyed / was impacted by many of the others, especially this one on sexual assault, the toe tags one on police violence, and this one on gun violence - it looked like a gun or the US, depending on where you stood.

Craig's piece was a huge attraction as well, and I thought it was wonderful and powerful.
posted by lazaruslong at 6:45 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


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