Social Fabric at the Newport Art Museum, Gallery View
2022-23

Curated by Francine Weiss, Ph.D. and Megan Horn

Maximum Security Massachusetts / Installation in "Domestic Space" at Wheaton College
2021
Wallpaper made from the aerial view of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Massachusetts, mirror, braided rug dress, mid-century couch, braided rug, mirrored table, dandelion necklace
108 x 104 x 65 inches

I made this installation as a kind of time capsule of my experience growing up in Massachusetts. Emphasizing repeating circular patterns, I point to labor patterns, patterns of behavior and the cyclical nature of time. Patterns of labor are manifest in the braided rugs made by anonymous women to avoid going bat shit crazy. The rug on the floor has a blood red center. The dress is made from braided rugs likely made from worn dresses. The wallpaper is a repeat pattern of the aerial view of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum security in Massachusetts. Mirrors throughout reference the panopticon, a surveillance system that encourages self regulation. Finally, the detail of the dandelion necklace has both leaf dagger and blossom, suggesting a precarious balance between entrapment and escape.

detail of Maximum Security Massachusetts / Installation in "Domestic Space" at Wheaton College
2021
Maximum Security Massachusetts / Installation in "Domestic Space" at Wheaton College
2021
Domestic State at Wheaton College, Installation view
Visibility is a Trap
screen printed toile wallpaper and textile with images of RI ACI, bird cage, lamp with 19th century print of dueling birds and braided rug
8’ x 6’ x 5’

At first glance it’s a cozy domestic scene from a grandmotherly living room, but closer inspection of the wallpaper and upholstery reveals barbed wire and images of prisons—in this case of the Adult Correctional Institute in Rhode Island. The door of the circular bird cage echos the shape of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a late 18th century prison plan that was circular and had a central watchtower. The idea behind Bentham’s plan was prisoners would feel they were always being watched and would begin to self surveil. Bentham’s design impacted the design of schools, hospitals and prisons and it is with us now in the omnipresence of surveillance cameras and in internet surveillance and tracking. The dueling birds in the light shade, the toile wallpaper and chair reveal power structures present in everyday life and suggest that even in domestic space feelings of unease and entrapment are ever-present patterns of behavior.


Visibility is a Trap, detail
Visibility is a Trap, detail
Maximum Security 50 States Massachusetts
2021
wallpaper
variable

Print made from the aerial view of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Massachusetts


Maximum Security 50 States Massachusetts
2021
wallpaper
variable

Print made from the aerial view of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Massachusetts

Maximum Security, 50 States, Rhode Island
2018
2 color silkscreen on paper
variable

This wallpaper was adapted from a fragment of a19th century toile pattern that I found on Ebay. I replaced the buildings in the original with images of Howard Prison, now known as the Adult Correctional Institution in Cranston, RI. Barbed wire festoons, barred windows and weapons were also drawn into the original pattern. Howard Prison was built in the 19th century, a period of prison reform and expansion, as well as a period of expanding material wealth for the growing middle class. Wallpaper was a sign of this wealth, and it was used extensively in home decoration. Toile and other panoramic papers gave viewers a sense of an expansive tranquility. This altered toile highlights the cost of that tranquility, pointing to our current culture of incarceration and referencing the philosopher Jeremy Benthem’s idea of the panopticon as a surveillance device, an all-seeing eye that instills behavior control through paranoia.


Printer: Beth Brandon, Photo Courtesy The RISD Museum

Maximum Security, 50 States Rhode Island, detail
2016-2018
2 color silkscreen on paper
variable
This toile incorporates images of RI Adult Correctional Institute into a historic paper.
Phantom of Liberty at the RISD Museum, Installation view with Tony Cokes, Yinka Shonibare MBE, and David Levinthal (on my Maximum Security, RI, Wallpaper)
2018
2 color silkscreen print

Printer: Beth Brandon, Photo Courtesy The RISD Museum

Inspection House
2019
Textile, wallpaper, venus flytraps, rug, slippers, embroidery and alarm
10' x 6' x 5'
This installation is named for the central watchtower— the Inspection House, in Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon—the central viewing space from which an institution keeps a watchful eye over it’s prisoners. Each of the letters in the embroidery is an aerial view of a prison, spelling out Home Sweet Home. The patterns in the wallpaper and slippers are from security envelopes from government and corporate surveillance patterns. I included the venus fly traps because of their ability to trap prey. By inserting objects and imagery about control and surveillance, I emphasize the paranoia that is part of contemporary surveillance culture and the injustices hidden in plain sight, woven into the fabric of comfortable living spaces.
Home Sweet Home Embroidery, detail of Inspection House Installation
machine embroidery
Each of the letters in the embroidery is an aerial view of a prison, spelling out Home Sweet Home.
Inspection House, detail
Chair upholstered with barbed wire fabric, from Inspection House
screen printed fabric
Maximum Security 50 States Pennsylvania
2018
5 color silkscreen on Thunder paper, with gunpowder
variable

This design uses historic photographs of Eastern State Penitentiary. With Thanks to the Library Company of Philadelphia, and Beth Brandon, printer.

Maximum Security 50 States Pennsylvania
2018
5 color silkscreen on Thunder paper, with gunpowder
variable

This design uses historic photographs of Eastern State Penitentiary. With Thanks to the Library Company of Philadelphia and Beth Brandon, Printer

Maximum Security 50 States Pennsylvania with Maisy!
Maximum Security, 50 States, Virginia
2019
Digitally printed Wallpaper

William Morris' "Sweet Briar"pattern is altered with Lorton Penitentiary, where the Silent Sentinels, the women who fought for our right to vote, were incarcerated. The Penitentiary was recently made into apartments, called "Liberty at Lorton."

Maximum Security, 50 States, Virginia
2019
Digitally printed Wallpaper

William Morris' "Sweet Briar"pattern is altered with Lorton Penitentiary, where the Silent Sentinels, the women who fought for our right to vote, were incarcerated. The Penitentiary was recently made into apartments, called "Liberty at Lorton."

50 States, Wyoming Wallpaper
2020

Based on a memory I witnessed in Wyoming. With thanks to Nicole Simpkins.

50 States, Wyoming Wallpaper
Maximum Security, 50 States, California
Screen printed paper
variable
Victorian paper with Gates from Folsom Prison
Maximum Security 50 States Oklahoma
2018
with Aerial view of the Federal Transfer City, Oklahoma City, OK
Maximum Security 50 States Oklahoma
2018
variable
with Aerial view of the Federal Transfer City, Oklahoma City, OK
Maximum Security, 50 States Wallpaper detail of Vermont
2017
Silkscreen
Maximum Security, 50 States Wallpaper detail of Vermont
2017
Silkscreen
variable
50 States: Maximum Security New York
2018
screen printed wallpaper
variable
views of the Hudson with Sing Sing Prison
50 States Wisconsin Billboard
50 States: Wisconsin, amber
2016
pigment print

A series of wallpapers that amend historic wallpapers with images of US maximum security prisons.

50 States: Wisconsin
2016
5 color screen print with gun powder on coated paper
variable

A series of wallpapers that amend historic wallpapers with images of US maximum security prisons. Based on a Zuber design, I replaced the original structures with images of Waupun Prison, a 19th century maximum security prison in Wisconsin. I adapted the trellis with barbed wire and used gunpowder in printing the last two layers.


Printer: Beth Brandon

Maximum Security, 50 States, New Hampshire
2018
printed wallpaper
variable
including Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon Plan and aerial views of NH State Prison for Men
Maximum Security, 50 States, New Hampshire
2018
printed wallpaper
variable
including Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon Plan and aerial views of NH State Prison for Men
Maximum Security, 50 States, New Hampshire
2018
printed wallpaper
variable
including Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon Plan and aerial views of NH State Prison for Men
Napkin Apparition 2
2019
embroidery on paper napkin
15 x 16 inches

a quard tower interrupts the intimate space of a napkin

Napkin Apparition 1
2018
embroidery on paper napkin
15 x 16 inches

a quard tower interrupts the intimate space of a napkin

detail: Maximum Security glow-in-the-dark Guard Tower Sheers
2018
embroidered sheers
8' x 4', each panel
Maximum Security glow-in-the-dark Guard Tower Sheers
2018
embroidered sheers
8' x 4', each panel
detail: Maximum Security glow-in-the-dark Guard Tower Sheers
2018
embroidered sheers
8' x 4' each panel
Maximum Security, Rikers Island Aerial View
Pigment Print on Hannemuhle paper, with pin pricks
12 x 9 inches

This view of Rikers shows where Kalief Browder was incarcerated for 3 years without trial for allegedly stealing a backpack.

Maximum Security, Rikers Island Aerial View, reverse
Maximum Security, Panopticon with staples
Pigment Print on Hannemuhle paper, with staples
12 x 9 inches