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    Through Monumental Installations of Soap and Stones, Jesse Krimes Interrogates the Prison System

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    Apokaluptein:16389067″ (2010–2013), cotton sheets, ink, hair gel, graphite, and gouache, 15 x 40 feet. All images courtesy of Jesse Krimes, Jack Shainman Gallery, and The Met, shared with permission

    Through Monumental Installations of Soap and Stones, Jesse Krimes Interrogates the Prison System

    November 21, 2024

    ArtSocial Issues

    Grace Ebert

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    Around 2009, Jesse Krimes was sent to solitary confinement while awaiting trial for a drug charge. He had recently graduated from Millersville University of Pennsylvania with an art degree and spent his first year inside Fairton Federal Correctional Institution making. “The one thing they could not take away or control was my ability to create,” he says.

    Like many incarcerated artists, Krimes had to forgo the luxuries of a pristine canvas and set of paints. Instead, he had to be resourceful and utilize the few materials available to him. He began transferring mugshots and small photos printed in The New York Times onto wet remnants of soap bars. He then tucked the blurred, inverse portraits into cut-out decks of playing cards glued together with toothpaste, which created a kind of protective casing that allowed him to smuggle the works out of the facility.

    Detail of “Purgatory” (2009), soap, ink, and playing cards

    The 292 works became “Purgatory,” which considers how we view criminality and references the unwinnable game of living in a carceral society. Having transferred both photos of people sentenced to prison and celebrities like Naomi Campbell and David Letterman, Krimes points to the ways popularized images can exacerbate power imbalances.

    “Purgatory” is currently on view at The Met in Jesse Krimes: Corrections, one of two New York exhibitions of the artist’s work.

    Exploring the role of photography in the criminal justice system, Corrections brings together several of Krimes’ large-scale works, including “Apokaluptein: 16389067.” The 40-foot patchwork mural similarly features imagery taken from newspapers that the artist transferred to 39 prison-issue bedsheets using hair gel. Inverted photographic renderings piece together advertisements, snapshots of global strife, and scenes of life from 2010 to 2013, all overlaid with Krimes’ own drawings.

    The root of apocalypse, apokaluptein is a Greek word translating to “uncover” and “revelation.” Paired with Krimes’ Bureau of Prisons ID number, the title references mass destruction and the mediated view of the world from inside the justice system.

    Detail of “Apokaluptein:16389067” (2010–2013), cotton sheets, ink, hair gel, graphite, and gouache, 15 x 40 feet

    Following his release, Krimes co-founded the Center for Art and Advocacy, which supports artists directly impacted by the justice system, and continues to collaborate with people who are incarcerated, often seeking help in sourcing materials for his work.

    “Naxos,” for example, suspends 9,000 pebbles from prison yards in a vivid installation as a parallel to “Apokaluptein: 16389067” at The Met. And at Jack Shainman Gallery, where Krimes is represented, the artist’s new body of work repurposes clothing gathered from currently and formerly incarcerated people into sweeping tapestries.

    Cells features three abstract works of transferred art historical imagery overlaid with sprawling, network-like embroideries. The webbed pattern is based on microscopic images of cancerous cells, which the artist excised to leave only the healthy tissue intact. By removing these malignancies, he creates an intricate metaphor for the ways the justice system extracts people from society while exploring new pathways toward care and redemption.

    Part of Krimes’ intent for his practice is to pay homage to those inside. “It is an absolute honor to have works that were created in such an austere and traumatic environment on display,” he said about Corrections. “To show these works highlights much more than the work of an individual artist, namely the collective value, creativity, and dignity of the millions of people currently behind prison walls.”

    Cells is on view through December 21 at Jack Shainman Gallery, while Jesse Krimes: Corrections runs through July 13, 2025, at The Met. Find more from Krimes on his website.

    “Unicorn” (2024), used clothing collected from currently and formerly incarcerated people, assorted textiles, embroidery, and image transfer, 109 x 105 x 2 3/4 inches

    Detail of “Unicorn” (2024), used clothing collected from currently and formerly incarcerated people, assorted textiles, embroidery, and image transfer, 109 x 105 x 2 3/4 inches

    Detail of “Purgatory” (2009), soap, ink, and playing cards

    Detail of “Purgatory” (2009), soap, ink, and playing cards

    Detail of “Naxos,” installation view of ‘Jesse Krimes: Corrections’

    Detail of “Naxos,” installation view of ‘Jesse Krimes: Corrections’

    “Stag” (2024), used clothing collected from currently and formerly incarcerated people, assorted textiles, embroidery, image transfer, acrylic paint, 82 x 77 x 2 3/4 inches

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      in Art

      An Oversized Statue of Leonard Peltier, an American Indian Activist, Pensively Stares Toward Alcatraz

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      Art

      #activism
      #prisons
      #public art
      #statue
      #wood

      November 12, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      Statue of activist Leonard Peltier. All images courtesy of the Sn Francisco Art Institute
      Peering out over the San Francisco Bay toward Alcatraz is a monumental statue that pays homage to an American Indian Movement activist who’s been incarcerated for decades. Created by Portuguese-American artist Rigo 23 in 2016, the 12-foot-tall figure resembles a small self-portrait that the activist, Leonard Peltier, painted while imprisoned.
      Wearing a simple white shirt, yellow pants, and no shoes, Peltier sits on a cement base, which is the actual size of his cell, in a pensive position. “There was something Buddha-like about the pose, and it reminded me of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker,’ which is so muscular and epic,” Rigo 23 told Hyperallergic about the original portrait. “Usually, images of heroism and humanity are epic, and this is just a man sitting on the ground wearing prison-issued clothes. It has this different kind of spirituality.”
      A member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa and also of Lakota and Dakota descent, Peltier was a well-known leader in the American Indian Movement throughout the 1960s and ’70s, having spearheaded multiple protests and marches to end injustices. Despite denying the charges, he has been imprisoned since 1977 after being convicted of killing two FBI agents in a 1975 shooting on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment for the incident, which has resulted in campaigns for his clemency.

      Angela Davis on Peltier’s feet
      Rigo 23 designed the work with detachable feet, which have traveled to Standing Rock Reservation, Alcatraz, and Crow Dog’s Paradise. The decision has allowed activists, including Angela Davis, to stand on top of the wooden pair in solidarity, an act that an Instagram account has been documenting.
      The oversized statue was moved to the roof of the San Francisco Art Institute in October—watch the full dedication ceremony with speeches from Peltier’s children on YouTube—where it received one of its more celebratory welcomes. Met with both support and animosity throughout its history, the work was removed early from a 2016 visit to the Katzen Art Center at the American University in Washington, D.C. Spurred by a complaint from the president of the FBI Agents Association, the action resulted in the statue’s displacement for about a year, the artist says.

      Its current position facing Alcatraz has similar significance, considering an activist group’s occupation of the former federal prison during the Nixon administration. In 1969, Indians of All Tribes seized the site in hopes of turning it into a school, cultural center, and museum. As the U.S. government attempted to regain control, the group established a clinic, kitchen, and education centers for the 19 months it claimed the island.
      The statue will remain at SFAI until March 28, 2021. Although the institution is closed to visitors, it’s offering a virtual tour of the work on its site.

      #activism
      #prisons
      #public art
      #statue
      #wood

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