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Art exhibit showcases prisoners' talents

Three campus art exhibits are offering a gateway to prison life by showcasing the work of prisoners and the ideas surrounding the current legal system.

One highlight of the exhibition is a small version of "A Table of Voices," an installation put up by Richard Kamler, the Adeline Kent Award-winning artist from San Francisco, Calif.

"A Table of Voices" consists of a long table of lead and gold bisected by a vertical sheet of glass, similar to a non-contact prison waiting room.

Ten seats are on both sides of the table. In front of each seat is a telephone. On one side of the table, a visitor to the exhibit will hear the voice of a parent of a murdered child telling their story, while on the other side, one can listen to the story of the perpetrator.

"The effort is to really have these two voices talking to each other so they can create essentially to begin the process of restitution, communication and healing," Kamler said.

"A Table of Voices" is part of a larger project that Kamler said he has been working on for the past two years.

"What interests me about working on this project is the possibility about transformation," Kamler said in a speech Tuesday. "Art works on all kinds of levels, and one level is transformation of people with horrific experiences of both the murder of a child, and also the murderer.

"The Table of Voices is going to create a context of communication to occur, to establish a common ground," he said.

Also on display at the exhibition are about 60 works of art by prisoners in Michigan correctional facilities.

"Do not become irate when you hear about inmates doing art," said Herschell Turner, an art instructor at Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility. "Right here in (Rackham Galleries), you'll see as much talent, as much skill, as you would in any major campus.

"I think that very little of (the artwork) reflects on life in a prison," Turner said. "I think that it's probably the same type of artwork you would see in a community art show. I think it's representative of the talent and skill of some inmates."

English Prof. William Alexander, together with Janie Paul, an adjunct Art professor, are curators of the exhibition.

"It's an opportunity for artists to show what they have," Alexander said. "To show their work to a public audience, and to sell their work -- something that most of them have not been able to do before."

"Prisons are invisible in our society," Alexander said. "One of the purposes of this show is to enable people to see that really remarkable, talented, inventive people are in our prisons doing very worthwhile work."

Paul said she agreed."There are many people in prison who shouldn't be there and as long as they're there they're being treated very inhumanely," Paul said. "We're trying to do something to bring some life and creativity into their lives."

The third exhibit by the Fundamental Fairness Committee, also at Rackham, is the Lifers Display, an educational collection of photographs, art and text addressing inequities in the Michigan sentencing guidelines.

"We fight for the National Lifers Association," said Nina Shepard, vice president of the committee.

In 1980, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to sentence a person to first degree felony murder without parole if there was no malice or intent proven in the commission of the crime, Shepard said. "They did not make the law retroactive."

Shepard said there are about 300 inmates convicted before 1980 still under the "old abolished law."

The three exhibitions opened Tuesday and will run through Feb. 28.