Art By Offenders - Exhibition Review

Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre London

Viewed on Saturday 30th October by Alain English

The exhibition was created by the Koestler Trust, a charity based in Wormwood Scrubs in West London.  It was created by victims of crime and each work hase been created by an offender detained at a prison or psychiatric hospital.

Firsttine Pierre-Pacquette, a victim of crime, and David Brown, an ex-offender, took some of us on a tour round the exhibition.  There was artwork created by prisoners across the country to choose from, but the exhibition was distilled down to 154 different pieces, including paintings, sculptures and other works.  Many of the artists were anonymous, but there was fine selection of work on display.

"Long Walk Home"  was a painting of the inside of a prison, and all the inhabitants had hollowed out eyes and the idea was to show how prison dehumanizes people.  "Which Way" was a picture by Daniel Hope and it showed things in the mind - wasps, lampshades, wine bottles - scattered around a room and challenged the viewers to look at things in their own way.

"Galleon" and "Noel" were two detailed examples of art created by prisoners that demonstrated the significant time and effort that had gone into their creation. "Galleon" was a brilliantly constracted matchstick model gunship and the artist had taken pains to construct the ship's interior as well as exterior. "Noel" was a Christmas decoration of a young woman in a scarlet dress and was fine example of handstitching.  Both these works had taken months to create and were dazzling in their intricate detail.

"Nightingale Road, Alexandra Road" was a painting that had won an award - the Monument Trust Scholarship for Fine Art - and was made of four separate graphics seeing different versions of two streets.  The colour and shading of paintwork gave it a real three-dimensional quality and you felt like you were really there.

"Everglades" was a green smorgasbord painting of flora and Firsttine said this had changed her views on prisoners and offenders, as this painting, in reminding her of her home in Dominica, had really moved her.

"Lonely Hearts" was an excellent piece, using different coloured rags (red, blue and black) to create the central image of hearts lost in prison.  When we reached another good painting "Storm at Sea", it was pointed out by the curators that none of the artists were trained.  They were all amateurs and the exhibition demonstrated the wealth of creative talent that exists in prisons.

I especially liked "Conopoly Board", a prison's version of monopoly with prison-related currency and penalties - costs you £100 if you're caught with a mobile phone.  "B.I.G", using paint and oatmeal, was a great representation of the performer and artist the Notorious B.I.G.

"The Cards I Was Dealt With" was a mockup cards table and the artis wanted to show how his drug-taking was a form of gambling. "Parkinsons Movement" was another fine painting which showed a depiction of a one-legged man languishing in a prison cell - with arrows to indicate how erratic his behaviour is.  It was there to demonstrate how anyone can commit crime and end up in prison.

"Protector" by Martin Crawley was a painting done on a prison bedsheet and the artist comments showed he was trying to paint a person looking out for him in prison and I thought it worked. "Glamour" by Anthony Wood was a good portrait of a supposedly desirable woman done with grey paint and newspaper cuttings. 

The curator's top choice work was "Cry of a Caged Bird", an excellent black-and-white drawing of an Indian child and what goes on in his life and in his mind.  The attention to detail and the way the artist had used his pencil to create effects of shade really worked.

As well as art, there was also some photography and some short films on display - "Living on a Knife Edge" was a short piece made by and about a young Glaswegian who went to prison after a knife attack.  An excellent combination of narration and animation really brough the piece to life.  "Stuck in the System" was very different, as it was a short mini-documentary made by youth offenders about how easy it is to get stuck in the system and the difficulties in breaking out.  It was bookended with some poetry - "Prison is a state of mind".

To round off, there was some music and spoken word, along with displays of written poetry.  Highlights here were Ian Menzies "Knife Crime Rap" and Ricky Smith's "God Squad" - both these pieces used rhythm and metaphor very well and there was a real sense of these artists telling it like it is. 

This was a fantastic exhibition in every respect and really opened my eyes to the creative potential locked up in some of our institutions today.