PRISON ART IN LOUISVILLE

On my last day in Louisville, I paid a visit to the new hipster hotel downtown, 21 C. Not to book a room, but to look at some art. A lot of art, as it turns out. From their website:

21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, KY is the first of its kind — a 91-room hotel dedicated to world class luxuries, Southern-style hospitality and contemporary art from living artists. The hotel features a 9,000 square foot contemporary art museum managed by the 21c Museum Foundation. This stunning collection of cutting-edge art inspired the naming of this property and influenced the creation of the museum and hotel.

The joint was a little too swanky for my tastes, but the museum element was certainly interesting, especially the video installation in the bathroom. Yeah. But the most interesting thing to catch my eye was the exhibition of work by self-taught artist Marvin Francis. In the gallery was a collection of come fifteen or so figures and dioramas that he created from his cell at the Kentucky State Penitentiary. Again, from the 21 C website:

Prison's Paper Trail is a retrospective of sculptures by the self-taught artist Marvin Francis that allows the viewer an insight into the artist‘s life from the inside. Incarcerated in the Kentucky State Penitentiary since 1986, Francis reveals not only a deep awareness of his imprisoned life, but also projects back into the past as he exhibits a hopeful yearning into the future. Using only the limited materials of toilet paper, wood, glue, and acrylic paint, he allows the viewer a glimpse of the political issues of capital punishment, the infrequent satirical humor of prison life, and faith in the power of memory and redemption. Being a child-abuse survivor, his work is meant for a personal healing process and a universal enlightenment – ultimately, it is a symbol for a sense of atonement and shows the triumph of the human soul.

The very next day, on my drive home to Mississippi, I was listening to a Splendid Table podcast, when Jane and Michael Stern came on to talk about barbecue in West Virginia. Their subject was Hocutt's Carolina Barbecue in Moundsville--a barbecue joint right across from the West Virginia State Prison. Now that's interesting enough, but then the Sterns went on to talk about their enthusiasm for prison gift shops. Prison gift shops?! If there's a prison that satisfies a certain retail need, it would be this one. After searching on the Internet, I came to find out that the West Virgina State Prison is quite a marketing machine. They offer night tours, flashlight tours, ghost hunts, ghost hunting classes, and something called "Do Hard Time." Not your run of the mill family vacation.

I've written about prison art before, but this news of prison gift shops has me agog. I might have to take a detour or two the next time I hit the road.