Narratives of the prison cell

Figure 1. Clark, Ronald W (2012).

I project a very real version of myself when interacting through Between the Bars (BTB), I also trust that it is genuine voices I converse with, and suspect that posts project an even more authentic version of prisoners than they are able to share within their prison walls.  It is a very open and trusting place and it feels like a privilege to interact here.

 When considering the language used throughout this site, what stands out is the lack of contemporary cyber language.  There are blog posts which incorporate some modern cyber terms, but overall, this is noticably absent.  The lack of these terms remind the reader of how primitive communication remains for prisoners and brings to light how excluded they actually are from modern society without access to the technology we take for granted.  Prisoners hand-write their posts, source stamps to mail them and receive replies through snail mail, so this site provides none of the instant gratification we have become accustomed to, perhaps making the experience all the more fascinating.

Prisoner's narratives are typically silenced due to their lack of ability to communicate through the physical and social barriers in place, yet if "language creates its' own reality" (Van Luyn, 2013), it can be said that prisoners utilise narrative to create a 'virtual freedom', through BTB.  The artworks submitted also provide pictorial narrative, evoking a sense of place (Van Luyn, 2013).  These artworks depict many things including beauty, social activism, humor and political messages, amongst other things.

Figure 2. J Riva (2012)

Figure 2.  S Pinkerson (2013)

Figure 3.  DA Camacho

The submissions on this site form more than just language and artwork, they are an attempt by prisoners to make the invisible (themselves) visible, (Tuan, 1979) and an attempt at transforming their location through art and language (Tuan, 1979).  Tuan argued that "some material places are monsters" (1991 p.693) and prisons are the ultimate depiction of this, yet to counteract the negativity of the physical space, prisoners attempt to use warm conversation to brighten the room (Tuan, 1991) in this virtual space, perhaps in an effort to seek anchorage in a hypercritical world.  Just as Songlines served as a map for Indigenous Australians (Chatwin, 1987), perhaps prison art performs a similar role, as you get a sense from some of these pictorial narratives that they are providing the artist with a map of freedom, to distance themselves from their caged reality.

Figure 5.  R Garcia (2013).

References:

Camacho, D. A. (Artist). (2010).Grumpy85 Style [Image of Drawing]. Draper UT; Between the Bars. Retrieved from https://betweenthebars.org/posts/128/

Chatwin, B. (1987).  The songlines. (Chapter 3). London: Jonathan Cape.

Clark, R. (Artist). (2012). The Death Row Poet [Image of Painting]. Raiford, FL; Between the Bars. Retrieved from https://betweenthebars.org/posts/7966/daily-journal-october-22-25-2012

Garcia, R. (Artist). (2013). Easie's Rantings [Image of Drawing]. Crescent City CA; Between the Bars. Retrieved from https://betweenthebars.org/posts/13391/koi-fish

Pinkerton, S. (Artist). (2013). Scot Pinkerton [Image of Drawing]. SLO CA; Between the Bars. Retrieved from https://betweenthebars.org/posts/12695/wheres-dat-mailman

Riva, J. (Artist). (2013). The Cannery [Image of Drawing]. Bridgewater MA; Between the Bars.  Retrieved from https://betweenthebars.org/posts/1`2430/the-cannery


Tuan, Y.F. (1991). Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 81, No. 4, 684-696.

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, week 5. [Audio Recording]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au