Through A Penal System, Darkly (2013-15)
On September 29, 2013, Kingston Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison, closed its doors just short of 180 years of operation. It was one of the oldest prisons in continuous use in the world. When KP opened in 1835, it signified an extraordinary departure in penal practice — away from corporal punishment and towards a model of reform and penance. Indeed, KP was the birthplace of the federal correctional system.
In December of 2013, with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, I photographed as much of the prison as I was permitted, even as it was in the midst of a decommission process. The resulting photographs – a selection of which are shown here – were the basis for my 2013-14 Artist Residency at Osgoode Hall Law School York University, Toronto, resulting in a site specific artwork and a legacy digital project created in collaboration with upper year law students.
Through A Prison System, Darkly: Criminal Justice Through the Lens of Kingston Penitentiary, is a photo-based survey of the prison contextualized with oral histories and perspectives from key stakeholders (current and past corrections administrators, legal experts, staff and prisoners). Importantly, this artwork used collaborative processes to communicate complex legal and theoretical concepts to a general public. Audio clips, maps, photo-documentation and photo-composites invited viewers to ruminate on a bigger picture—on the evolving structure of the penal system, on society’s changing understanding of the role of prison, and on the role played by the many people who have a willing or unwilling stake in the criminal justice and penal systems—while foregrounding the challenges facing the Canadian penal system.
