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Complicating Carceral Boundaries with Offender Art

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Book cover The Prison Boundary

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology ((PSIPP))

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Abstract

Highlighting the 2011 Koestler Award ‘Art by Offenders’ Exhibition, Turner demonstrates how prisoners may interact with the world outside of prison, despite their incarceration. Drawing on a range of prisoner artwork, Turner argues that prisoners producing art and the outsiders interacting with it have a number of important purposes. In the sale of artwork, prisoners contribute to a system of production and economic exchange. Furthermore, as well as generating their own income, the celebration of these pieces through specific awards helps in the self-production of creative individuals legitimised in the arts community and wider society. Finally, Turner draws on literatures of ‘touch’ and hapticality to consider how production and consumption of this artwork may enhance prisoners’ ability to ‘touch’ the world outside of prison.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Available at: http://prisonerben.blogspot.co.uk/[Accessed 12 August 2012].

  2. 2.

    For examples, see Hugunin (1999).

  3. 3.

    Tattoos have a huge significance in criminal culture, although often constituting a metaphor for difference (see Shoham 2010). The proceedings of the court of the Old Bailey in London reveal that branding of criminals was a common occurrence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (see Emsley et al. 2012). Convicts found guilty of manslaughter but not murder were often branded on the thumb (with a ‘T’ for theft, ‘F’ for felon, or ‘M’ for murder), so that they would be unable to receive this benefit more than once. In a similar vein, some prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camp were forcefully tattooed with a serial number marking their identity a skin-scarring technique employed deliberately to impose shame upon the individual who bore them (see United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2012). The significance of shame was more thoroughly discussed in Chap. 3.

  4. 4.

    Available at: www.lsa.umich.edu.pcap [Accessed 1 August 2012].

  5. 5.

    Available at: http://www.koestlertrust.org.uk/pages/uk2011/exhib2011gal1.html [Accessed 16 September 2015].

  6. 6.

    Legislation came into effect in Wales on 2nd April 2007 and in England on 1st July 2007 making it illegal to smoke in enclosed public spaces and workplaces to reduce the effects of second-hand smoking.

  7. 7.

    Curator and artist quotes were displayed alongside selected pieces during the exhibition. It is not clear whether artists were interviewed following the selection of their pieces for the exhibition, as the award application form does not facilitate any comments on the work. Artist and curator comments not otherwise attributed are from this source.

  8. 8.

    Scottish prisons and some specialist hospitals have a No Sales Policy.

  9. 9.

    As explained in Chap. 3, the amount of accessible cash available to each prisoner is restricted. Allowing inmates to have access to more cash per week arguably contributes to systems of supply, demand and exchange that exist as an informal economy within the prison—a clear subversion of the normative positive associations with neoliberal markets.

  10. 10.

    Available at: www.prisonart.org [Accessed 24 August 2012].

  11. 11.

    Available at: www.convictedartist.com [Accessed 24 August 2012].

  12. 12.

    For a more detailed analysis of the exhibition tour in the UK, including details about the period at Pentonville Prison, see also Holden (2005).

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    Jennifer Turner

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Turner, J. (2016). Complicating Carceral Boundaries with Offender Art. In: The Prison Boundary. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53242-8_6

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