I attended an art exhibition recently. I am, by far, no art critic; the art was beautiful and soothing to my mind. My brain freely delivered one-word adjectives on a mental platter: fanciful, dreamy, reflective, whimsical, imaginary, pristine, kaleidoscopic. The list goes on. My eyes were drawn time and again to the presence of - muted and otherwise- a shade of nearly fluorescent pink. I wonder how these guys came to have an affinity for pink. Guys…. the artists were all men. Not your everyday-in-the-street man but those with the past and present experiences of being incarcerated for crimes committed. It was called “Our New Beginning.” It was my first experience with prison art and here I am, a Women in Art member writing about men in art… kind of.
“Our New Beginning” took place at the Long Circular Mall from August 12 to 17. It is the Trinidad and Tobago Prison Service’s Annual Inmate Art Exhibition and, is a collaboration between the national Prison Service and the Raja Yoga Prison Ministry. For more than a decade, inmates have been provided with an invaluable forum to showcase their art annually to the public and generate an income for themselves, their families and the prison programme that attends to the rehabilitation process for prisoners. As far I understand it, art is very much a product of the prison service’s Programme and Industry Department, along with literacy programmes. My casual enquiry of the officers stationed at the mall revealed that art supplies are provided by the prison service and the inmates’ families. Proceeds from the sales are funneled back into the programme, to the inmates and their families. There is a designated communal space for this activity or, I am told, inmates may opt to paint in their cells. I noted that there is freedom in canvas size. Some pieces are very large, and some are very small; there is freedom of choice in this regard. I reflected on the ironies of prison freedoms even whilst I drew a breath in recognition of names once not nationally recognized in the context of pretty paintings.
I moved through the exhibition once, for casual appreciation. And then twice, to ruminate on elements and principles….positioning myself for imaginary peer review (after all, I am an artist). I focused on themes. What would be the dominant themes of inmates? My younger and naïve self would have imagined dark and dismal themes, elements of rebellion or even a reflection of a macabre past. Instead within each frame is a composition that assembles and reassembles fragments of a pristine life- real or imagined, projected perfections and that pink paint. What do inmates project onto their canvases? Nature, flora, fauna, the female motif, religion, romanticism, landscapes and a few abstracts. One featured ‘mother’. Painstaking attention to detail is the hallmark of most of their works. The luxury and realization of the artist’s time is evident in the final product. The work is executed in acrylics, oils, airbrush and some mixed media as far as I can see. My second overview recognized a general commonality in the entire exhibition. Some inmate artists painted solo while others collaborate on one piece. So, in several pieces I would have indeed recognized dominant styles. There were commonality in themes, confident use of bright colours, bold strokes and a lot of deep thought about what each painting was supposed to look like. In every piece I saw an appreciation for life, hope and a reimagining of each man’s life. But I am still figuring out the pinks.
Please click HERE to view more photos of the exhibition.
Written by Niala Dwarika (womeninart-tt.org)
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