{"id":3192,"date":"2016-11-15T23:09:32","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T23:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/?p=3192"},"modified":"2016-11-17T17:19:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T17:19:26","slug":"idea-space-looks-inside-the-criminal-justice-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/2016\/11\/15\/idea-space-looks-inside-the-criminal-justice-system\/","title":{"rendered":"IDEA Space Looks Inside the Criminal Justice System"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Laurie Laker \u201912<\/strong><\/p>\n

Colorado College\u2019s IDEA Space, the InterDisciplinary Experimental Arts Space, is currently hosting an exhibition titled \u201cIncarceration Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt addresses a crucial topic in the American landscape,\u201d says Briget Heidmous, assistant curator of the IDEA Space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mass incarceration of human beings is an epidemic in this country,\u201d explained Heidmous. \u201cCurrently, there are 2.3 million people being held in a system that is broken, serving up mandatory minimums, often for profit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition, consisting of a series of showings and events across campus, and \u2013 as Heidmous says, \u201coffers a visual art experience that serves as a platform to generate conversation surrounding issues of mass imprisonment, reform, and the\u00a0human experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opening reception and panel discussion took place in late October, and was well-attended by students, faculty, staff, and local community members. The panel featured exhibited artists Michelle Handleman and Jessie Krimes, visiting performer Yannis Simonides, activist Jean Casella, CC faculty members Jane Murphy and Carol Neel, and CC student and researcher Madeleine Engel \u201918.<\/p>\n

Casella, the director of the solitary confinement watchdog project Solitary Watch, opened the panel by saying that \u201cart is always about our common humanity, so fighting any form of injustice with it is brilliant.\u201d It was a sentiment shared by all on the panel, including formerly incarcerated artist Jesse Krimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWork, particularly my art, served as a way to keep my sanity, but also as an act of resistance,\u201d says Krimes. Krimes\u2019 featured work, a massive patchwork of print-adorned prison bedsheets, \u201callows the facilitation of dialogue, and the artwork makes the dialogue easier to have because it\u2019s a focal point,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Michelle Handelman\u2019s work, first begun in 2009, uses the medium of video to investigate and express the prison experiences of queer inmates. Her piece, screening in a replica solitary confinement cell in the IDEA Space, is hard to watch \u2013 but that\u2019s why it\u2019s important.<\/p>\n

\u201cSolitary is only a punishment,\u201d she says. \u201cYou lose track of yourself as a person after a while, it\u2019s heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s often spun as protective custody for queer inmates, but it\u2019s really an excuse for the system to stop treating them like any inmate at the facility. It marks them out as different, which is incredibly damaging emotionally and mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Converse to much of the discussion of contemporary criminal justice and imprisonment, the work that Greek performer Yannis Simonides does reawakens the punishments of the past. His international touring one-man production of Plato\u2019s \u201cThe Apology,\u201d presents a speech of legal self-defense against charges of impiety and corruption in 399 BC.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I always try to do, with every performance, is bring the audience into their \u2018I\u2019 mindset,\u201d Simonides explains. \u201cWhat that means is that I try to have them feel as if they\u2019re on trial, as if they\u2019re being forced to defend themselves in court. It\u2019s discomforting, but it starts a dialogue and that\u2019s what all good art should do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn ancient Greece, prisons were not the places we know now. They weren\u2019t barbaric. Socrates, for example, was held in a room with no doors or windows \u2013 fresh air could circulate, he had visitors at all times, and was free to move as he pleased. It was humane, incredibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing until December 17, the next events in the series are two events on First Monday, November 28, with a presentation and reception with photographer and activist Richard Ross, whose work deals with the placement and treatment of American youth in the penal system. On December 6, there\u2019s a film screening and performance by Carolina Rubio MacWright, whose work explores the theft of freedom due to kidnapping, incarceration, or the denial of a safe and peaceful homeland.<\/p>\n

Please contact the IDEA Space\u00a0<\/a> for any further information on these, or other exhibits and events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Laurie Laker \u201912 Colorado College\u2019s IDEA Space, the InterDisciplinary Experimental Arts Space, is currently hosting an exhibition titled \u201cIncarceration Nation.\u201d \u201cIt addresses a crucial topic in the American landscape,\u201d says Briget Heidmous, assistant curator of the IDEA Space. \u201cThe mass incarceration of human beings is an epidemic in this country,\u201d explained Heidmous. \u201cCurrently, there … <\/p>\n

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