New Artworks Accompany Seasonal Opening of Eastern State Penitentiary
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The historic Eastern State Penitentiary, in Fairmount, launches its 2015 season with new art installations, including one constructed in sound and another focusing on the forced labor of inmates.
If you could sing one song, and have that song heard, what would it be? That's what Jess Perlitz asked nearly 100 incarcerated people for her installation called "Chorus." The audio is triggered when a visitor enters the cell.
One voice, then two, then multiple singers are overlaid in a cacophony that some describe as maddening.
"I think I was really thinking about how physical space gets defined by voice," Perlitz explained to KYW Newsradio, "and specifically here, with the history of solitary confinement, and the idea of penitence and trying to reckon with God for your sins, as the original way this prison was built," she said, adding, "And as people were in here alone, they slowly went insane."
There are a total of 12 installation on the grounds of the historic former prison, including a mural (top photo) by an artist (below) who is himself a former federal inmate.
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While in federal prison, Jesse Krimes created an artwork he calls "Apokaluptein 16389067," whose title includes his former inmate number. It included images from the New York Times transferred onto 39 prison bedsheets, which he mailed home.
"I would use hair gel and a spoon to transfer each individual image, and then I would come back with colored pencil and graphite to blend the imagery together, taking all of these events and unifying them into a singular image," he explains. Now, he has recreated those images in a cell at Eastern State.
The public is invited to meet the artists and see their works for free, tomorrow evening (5:30-7:30pm), at Eastern State Penitentiary, 21st Street and Fairmount Avenue. Complimentary refreshments from area businesses will be served.
The artworks will be on display for the rest of the year.
