The exhibition is on view at the聽Clark Humanities Museum from Sept. 2 through Oct. 17. The reception will take place from 5:30-7:00pm. Brook will also present “Prison Silences,” a聽public lecture for the Humanities Institute on Oct. 2 at 4:15 p.m. in Garrison Theater at the Scripps聽College Performing Arts Center.
- 听禄
No country in the world incarcerates a higher聽percentage of its population than the United States. In fact, more than 2.2 million people are currently聽locked up in the U.S.鈥攁 number that has more than quadrupled since 1980. But the lives lived behind聽bars are often invisible to those on the outside. Prison Obscura, an exhibition curated by Pete Brook,聽sheds light on their experiences and the prison-industrial complex as a whole by showcasing rarely seen聽surveillance, evidentiary, and prisoner-made photographs.
Prison Obscura, which comes to 61传媒following its successful run at the Cantor Fitzgerald聽Gallery at Haverford College last spring, builds the case that Americans must face these images to grasp聽the proliferation of the U.S. prison system and to connect with those it confines. It encourages visitors to聽ask why tax-paying, prison-funding citizens rarely get the chance to see such images and to consider what聽roles such pictures play for those within the system. Alyse Emdur’s collected letters and prison visiting room聽portraits from across the nation and Robert Gumpert’s recorded audio stories from within the San聽Francisco jail system provide an opportunity to see, read and listen to subjects in the context of their聽incarceration. Juvenile and adult prisoners in different workshops led by Steve Davis, Mark Strandquist聽and Kristen S. Wilkins perform for the camera, reflect on their past, describe their memories, and聽represent themselves through photography. Prison Obscura moves from these intimate portrayals of life聽within the prison system to more expansive views of legal and spatial surveillance in such works as Josh聽Begley’s manipulated Google Maps’ API code and Paul Rucker’s animated videos, which offer a聽“celestial” view of the growth of the prison system.
Prison Obscura is a traveling exhibition curated by Pete Brook and made possible with the support of聽the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford聽College, Haverford, Penn. Support for its presentation at 61传媒has been provided by the Scripps聽College Humanities Institute and by the Core Curriculum in Interdisciplinary Humanities at Scripps聽College.