Angelo, Electric cigarette lighter with saltwater and hot pot resistor variations (2003), 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches, ballpoint pen drawing on notebook paper.
April 22-28, 2004
art
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Angelo, Electric cigarette lighter with saltwater and hot pot resistor variations (2003), 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches, ballpoint pen drawing on notebook paper. |
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Meticulous drawings and writings reveal prisoners' ingenuity.
The strange parallel universe of American prison life is revealed in a unique exhibition of drawings and objects created by Temporary Services, an artists' collective based in Chicago, and an incarcerated artist identified only by the name Angelo. Angelo's ongoing series of narrative drawings and writings number at around 5,000 (archived privately by Temporary Services), but he estimates that several thousand have been stolen or destroyed in prison. Temporary Services mounted an exhibition of Angelo's drawings in 2000, and shortly afterwards, plans for an exhibition based on prisoners' inventions developed, with Temporary Services providing administrative and logistical support. A book, which contains more than 100 pages of drawings and descriptive text, accompanies the exhibition.
The show at Basekamp includes 42 high-quality prints of Angelo's drawings that document a variety of inventions he has seen prisoners make in order to satisfy their needs and comforts, and it highlights the prisoners' ingenious construction techniques with readily available materials. (No weapons or drug paraphernalia are included in this series of drawings.) Angelo draws with ballpoint pen on notebook paper in a style that suggests influences from comics and industrial-design drafting. He has a keen eye for details and most of the objects were drawn from memory. His accompanying handwritten descriptions and stories are witty and articulate. The drawings function as signage for 3-D facsimiles fabricated by Temporary Services and Basekamp, and a full-scale, welded-steel copy of Angelo's prison cell created at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
Many of Angelo's drawings reveal the ingenuity of prisoners in personalizing and decorating their personal space. Picture frames and other objects are made from folded potato chip bags and cell doorstops are made from rolled newspaper covered with athletic socks (to keep the cell neat). Angelo himself has devised ways of folding a mattress into a desk or chair, and created art supplies and equipment, including pencil boxes made from Colgate toothpaste boxes and toilet paper. He arrived at an ingenious solution to a dearth of storage space by doubling and folding paper bags of different sizes -- one of the few items, he remarks in his commentary, that is completely legal. The drawings show how industriously, as if inspired by Martha Stewart, many prisoners strive to create order and beauty in their tiny spaces.
The basic human desire for pleasant dining experiences and entertainment are also addressed in the drawings. Angelo describes how he created a toilet paper mâché cup for hoarding Kool-Aid (in order to have the pleasure of a single large cup rather than several small packets), and there are numerous salt-and-pepper shakers, a testament to the scarcity in prison dining areas of these normally ubiquitous seasonings. The exhibition also features drawings and facsimiles of a chessboard made of cardboard and glue, papier mâché dice, a dice table-snack stand made from ramen-soup cartons and wide masking tape, a half-dozen truly dangerous cigarette lighters and a "seagull rocket" made by tying a bread roll to a cone of paper with fins. One handy prisoner created a mini-lathe with a motor from a cassette player.
Angelo also documents a few devices designed to accommodate another basic human need -- though sex of any kind, even masturbation, is prohibited in prison. Muff bags ("to be used on cellie's bunk when he is out") are made with a combination of rolled blankets and plastic bags filled with warm water. A rare moment of privacy can be achieved through various methods described in the book, such as making a "covered wagon" of sheets and blankets around the lower bunk or hanging a curtain from an elaborate paper-clip chain around the toilet. The need for companionship is also demonstrated by a cage for a pet spider (pets are prohibited in prison) with a plastic front and tiny tombstones.
The sustained focus in Angelo's drawings on specific creative solutions to day-to-day life in prison -- without the emotional rhetoric of crime, punishment, or penal reform -- creates a vivid image of humanity and enterprise in the prison social environment. These drawings are well worth seeing and pondering.
"PRISONERS' INVENTIONS" BY TEMPORARY SERVICES AND ANGELO
Through May 7, Basekamp, 723 Chestnut St., second floor, 215-206-8176
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