Prison Art
The prison art gallery, a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Works, showcases and offers for sale the artworks of current and ex-prisoners of Western Australia. Art therapy has been used within the prison for education and rehabilitation.
Additionally many cells and areas of the prison depict prisoners' artwork, including that of the 19th-century forger James Walsh, whose artwork was hidden beneath layers of white-wash for decades. Painting or drawing on walls was originally forbidden, however, this rule was relaxed in special cases where art was found to calm violent prisoners, and was relaxed generally towards the end of the life of the facility.
A more contemporary prison artist was Dennis (NOZ) Nozworthy, who stated that he found art on death row. Some of his work currently is held in the collections of Curtin University, Perth Central TAFE, and the WA Government, Department of Justice.
Other cells contain Aboriginal artwork many by unknown artists. The Walmajarri artist Jimmy Pike started painting in Fremantle prison, having received tuition from Steve Culley and David Wroth.
Read more about this topic: Fremantle Prison
Famous quotes containing the words prison and/or art:
“Thus I alone, where all my freedom grew,
In prison pine with bondage and restraint;
And with remembrance of the greater grief
To banish the less, I find my chief relief.”
—Henry Howard, Earl Of Surrey (1517?–1547)
“We all agree now—by “we” I mean intelligent people under sixty—that a work of art is like a rose. A rose is not beautiful because it is like something else. Neither is a work of art. Roses and works of art are beautiful in themselves. Unluckily, the matter does not end there: a rose is the visible result of an infinitude of complicated goings on in the bosom of the earth and in the air above, and similarly a work of art is the product of strange activities in the human mind.”
—Clive Bell (1881–1962)