Prisons and art: Regina Jose Galindo
Over at We Make Money Not Art, Regine has a post up about an international art fair in Italy that included the work of Guatemalan performance artist Regina José Galindo, whose work addresses "social injustice, gender discrimination, racism and the governmental atrocities of her own country." Earlier this year 2008, she began a project in protest of America's booming industry of private prisons -- and that project involved her own family.
For her performance, America's Family Prison, Galindo rented a cell for $8,000 from Sweeper Metal Fabricators Corp and had it transported to the Art Pace gallery in San Antonio TX.Below, an excerpt from a documentary about life in T. Don Hutto Prison. More of that documentary, and more photos of Galindo's installation with her own family, here: Artissima: America's Family Prison (WMMNA, thanks Susannah!)The artist, her husband and their 2-year-old daughter locked themselves in the mobile prison unit for 36 hours. Gallery visitors could peep through the narrow windows of the brightly-lighted cell and observe the family as they tried to occupy themselves with books and drawings during their voluntary detention.
The performance refers in particular to T. Don Hutto "Family Residential Center," a for-profit private prison located in Taylor, near Austin, and operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private jail company in the world with one of the highest stock market values on Wall Street.
T. Don Hutto is the first prison authorized by the state to lodge whole families: men, pregnant women, adolescents, children, women, and even babies. The inmates are not necessarily criminals, very often they are detained there while their immigration status is determined.
the latest
latest episodes
I've been writing about art and activism for a long time, and this is one of the few pieces I've seen address the the subject of incarceration, or even prisons, generally. It's so taboo that many otherwise critical artists and activists shy away from it. I was very glad to see it at WMMNA, and again here at BoingBoing. Thanks for sharing!
Sooo...people who speak English as a second language need to be protected with barbed wire? Is that what that woman was saying? I should buy stock in barbed wire then, because we're going to need a lot of it. I don't think the government is protecting ESL individuals enough. We need to put them in prisons for their OWN SAFETY.
Whatever the solution to problems with immigration is...this is not it.
I wonder if CCA will ever need a bail out, I'm sure their "clients" do...
Yes, god knows that when I went to Brazil, I tried to take lots of Barbed Wire with me, not speaking Portuguese and all. Unfortunately, the TSA, caring nothing for my safety as a non-Portuguese speaker, confiscated my wire before I could even get on the plane.
Also, what the hell were they feeding those people. Are there no fruits or vegetables in Texas? Was that a cube of lard? Poor people.
From the film:
"The barbed wire is for the inmates protection"
In the same way that barbed wire fences make cows safe? The barbs are a deterrent. They hurt cows when they rub against it to deter them from breaking fences when they lean on them.
Or is it for their protection in the way that WW1 trenches had forests of tangled barbs in front of them to prevent the enemy from charges across no-mans land?
Barbed wire is used only as a deterrent for crossing. It is there to prevent incursion and escape. It is designed to inflict pain and to intimidate those who would cross.
Its a jail. Dont let a single person tell you different. Only jails use barbed wire to "protect" people.
(not that there is anything wrong with barbed wire in general - useful stuff! It would be nice to see some honesty about its reason for being in place though...)
#4 "Also, what the hell were they feeding those people. Are there no fruits or vegetables in Texas? Was that a cube of lard?"
Nope, Texas outside the few modern cities basically doesn't have recognizable plant food. "Vegetables" here usually means macaroni and cheese, rice, mashed potatoes, or fries. At least McDonald's has salads.