An exploration of incarceration and transformation - features a prison bed upon which is found a standard issue prison suitcase filled with an assortment of objects: a prison blanket, pillow and sheet; and various personal items.
The viewer is invited to open the suitcase, consider and select any items to arrange upon and around the bed to create a personal artistic statement about incarceration.
The viewer is then invited to write about his or her statement in the Book of Fame which is open for other viewers to read.
The installation remains on display for a minimun of 15 minutes. Other viewers are invited to write their comments about this and other installations in the Book of Fame.
Installations are also documented through digital photos and posted on the website.
Exhibited at Art Gallery of Algoma in 2004
Artist's note:
According to Correctional Service of Canada, there are 52 federally managed penitentiaries and 17 community correctional centres in Canada.
On a typical day there are 12,600 offenders in the institutions; 8,500 offenders supervised in the community by 71 parole officers. There are 175 halfway houses across the country.
Federal offenders represent 5% of the total number of persons sentenced to custody in Canada and 6% of offenders in the community.
Canada spends $1.5 billion annually on the Federal correctional system. The annual cost of maintaining an offender ranges from $108,277 for maximum security to $41,583 in a community correctional centre with an overall average of $62,115.
One in three inmates is serving a sentence of more than ten years.
After serving a sentence the offender is deemed rehabilitated, to have paid his or her debt to society, and released back into the community.
If so many are, or have been, deemed 'socially unacceptable', what's wrong with society?
We get as good as we give.
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