Exhibition of prisoners’ art to reveal humanity beyond their crimes
Matt McCoy, a local painter who helped facilitate an art program inside the jail that produced the work, says the pieces tell the stories of women that most of us only know through their crimes. Some of the images in the art may be disturbing, McCoy admits, because the artists have led difficult lives. But even then, he says, their work tends to focus on their families, childhood memories, or their own children.
“One woman did a piece that’s almost a little diorama of her giving birth in remand and being shackled to the bed with guards standing around waiting for her to give birth,” McCoy says. “I guess that would be disturbing, but it was an important moment of her life. The flip side is, it shows hope and looking forward.”
Moyra Lang, a volunteer with the Greater Edmonton Librarians Association, says the art program got its start from a prison book club that was run by the association inside the jail. Inmates started bringing some of their artwork to the book club meetings, Lang says, and she was impressed by what she saw.
“The art reflects their personal experience, their pain, their hurt and their journey towards healing,” Lang says. “I was blown away and thought, man, we should really have a show.”
The librarians decided to seek the help of local artists, like McCoy and Anne Pasek, to hold art workshops inside the institution. But it took about two years from the first thought of a show to it actually becoming a reality. Volunteers have to be trained and receive security clearance before they can work with the inmates, Lang says, and scores of e-mails and memos fly back-and-forth about what materials can be brought in and taken out.
The art for the show at Latitude 53 has been chosen by the women themselves, Lang says. Some of it is paintings, while other works are drawings in pencil or felt markers. There’s a collage made from magazine clippings and stickers, and there’s a collective installation piece, too.
They’ve also written their own short bios to accompany their pieces. Lang says the volunteers supplied them with sample artist bios as a guide for writing them. The difference from standard show, though, is that only their first names will be used.
Since the artists can’t attend the opening night, the volunteers have arranged for a video recording to be made. There will also be folded paper cranes, where some of the cranes will contain messages from the artists and others are left blank for people who attend the show to write their own messages for the artists.
“What the women have shared with me is they feel very, very excited about having contact with the community in a positive way,” Lang says. “They’re just excited to be seen through their art and not their crime, and that the community is interested in seeing their art.”
According to the Latitude 53 website’s description of the show, Hidden Truths is relevant to all Canadians in the current political climate of “getting tough on crime” by offering new and creative perspectives of women in prison.
“Women who are young, racialized, poor, or who have mental or cognitive disabilities are increasingly being criminalized. Two thirds of federally sentenced women are mothers, many of whom have primary childcare responsibilities,” the website states.
McCoy says that as a facilitator for the art program, he didn’t teach the women art. Rather, he says he let them run with their own ideas. The installation piece, he says, is like a collage of different images, phone booth-shaped, with painted mylar that’s illuminated from one end, as well as text.
“They’re almost like snapshots in their lives,” McCoy says of the pieces. “They’re hidden moments and stories and memories that we’re not normally privy to. We as the public know one story – what their crime was – but we don’t know what led up to it.”
Hidden Truths will be on display at Latitude 53 until May 12.
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