![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/95-DO-IM_Berson_Hoszko_R5C3GT6_CMYK-scaled.jpeg\")
35+ Prisons in Qu\u00e9bec<\/em>, installation view, Mus\u00e9e d\u2019art de Joliette, Joliette, 2018.
Photo: Paul Litherland, courtesy of the artist & Mus\u00e9e d\u2019art de Joliette<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Concurrently, there is also a large anti-\u00adprison network in Canada. For many, including people who identify on the political left, the idea of opposing prisons seems nonsensical\u200a\u2014\u200alogic tells us that people go to prison for committing a crime. Yet, we know that there are flaws in our justice system and that systemic bias is a reality when it comes to the criminalization of specific communities. This is reflected in the disproportionate number of Indigenous people facing incarceration and also in the types of sentencing people receive. According to the 1995 Report of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System, the rate of Black incarceration is disproportionate to the Black population federally, and the commission found evidence of systemic levels of racism at all levels of the criminal justice system. Today, it is generally understood that the modern prison-industrial complex extends the life of slavery, especially as through labour exploitation for government profit. Given this, many abolitionists call for an end to prisons, with some suggesting transformative justice as a possible alternative.5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 5 <\/a> - \u201cFAQ ON TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE,\u201d Third Eye Collective, https:\/\/thirdeyecollective.wordpress.com\/faq-on-community-accountability<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n As well-known political activist, academic, and author Angela Davis asks, \u201cHow do we imagine justice in a very different context? Justice that\u2019s not based on vengeance but justice that\u2019s made on repairing the relationships that are damaged through harm.\u201d6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 6 <\/a> - Angela Davis, \u201cGeorge Tonight: Angela Davis on abolishing prisons,\u201d George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight | CBC, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch? v=T0Pm44zcn8o.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Jamie Ross is a Montr\u00e9al-based artist and witch who worked as a Pagan chaplaincy volunteer in various federal prisons in Qu\u00e9bec between 2015 and 2018. He was invited to do so by a Pagan chaplain based outside the province who had been serving inmates in Qu\u00e9bec over the phone and following a series of human rights complaints that were filed against Corrections Service Canada on the grounds that Pagans\u2019 religious needs were not being met locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his recent exhibition Unscrew the locks from the doors! (Un sor<\/em>til\u00e8ge de lib\u00e9ration), held concurrently at Verticale in Laval and Eastern Bloc in Montr\u00e9al, Ross connects his art and religious practices as a means of bringing attention and resources to the men he has worked with on the inside over a period of four years. His project included a Beltane parade held outside the Centre f\u00e9d\u00e9ral de formation, in the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul neighborhood of Laval, alongside thirteen other contemporary artists from the United States and Canada who had produced new work for this performance, including FASTW\u00dcRMS, Faye Mullen, and Marie la Vierge.7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 7 <\/a> - Beltane is a celebration of lust, life, and the return of the sun, observed in Contemporary Pagan communities, arising from an early Gaelic, pre-Christian tradition.<\/span> There was also a public conversation between Susan J. Palmer, a religious studies professor who specializes in cults and obscure religious traditions, and Martin Lepage, an author with a focus on queer Neo-Paganism. The final phase of the project was a large-scale video installation at Eastern Bloc, featuring objects and costumes created for the Beltane parade. In the video, Ross collaborated with several other male artists, each a stand-in of sorts for prisoners whom he had interviewed. What the visitor \u00adwatched was a musing on queer power dynamics, Asgardian lore, and ritual poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Ross\u2019s video and the overarching project exist outside of the vocabulary of contemporary art. This is not because of Ross\u2019s interest in ancient Pagan themes, which are actually having a moment, but because the visual language, messiness, and community spirit of the work are not intended for people used to digesting culture in the context of the white cube gallery setting, but for the men with whom Ross works in the prison system. A firm prison abolitionist and transformative justice advocate, Ross was presenting a literal offering for an end to incarceration. Through action, song, and collective ritual, participants in the project, both inside and outside the prison (the ritual cycle was simultaneously completed by men on the other side of the prison walls that day) engaged in an action toward this end, whether consciously or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2012, all non-Christian chaplains were fired by the Harper Conservative government.8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 8 <\/a> - \u201cNon-Christian prison chaplains chopped by Ottawa,\u201d CBC News British Columbia, www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/non-christian-prison-\u00adchaplains-chopped-by-ottawa-1.1142212.<\/span> Ross\u2019s work as a chaplain\u200a\u2014\u200awhich is officially classified as volunteer\u200a\u2014\u200arecognizes the resulting gap in support for non-Christian people in prisons. His personal definition of Paganism allows for conversation with and support for anyone seeking his services, and in this way, he works against the ongoing link between the Church and the prison-industrial complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hoszko\u2019s artwork situates the prison-industrial complex within a legacy of colonial activity. As part of her recent exhibition 35+ Prisons in Qu\u00e9bec,<\/em> curated by Anne-Marie St-Jean-Aubre at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019art de Joliette (MAJ), Hoszko presented a selection of recent stained-glass works exploring the explicit role that the Catholic Church played in developing the carceral system in the province. Although most Canadians presume that we live in a religiously neutral state, \u201cin Canada, neither state neutrality in matters of religion, nor the separation of church and state, is explicitly affirmed in the Constitution.\u201d9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 9 <\/a> - Rosalie Jukier and Jos\u00e9 Woehrling, \u201cReligion and the Secular State in Canada,\u201d in Javier Martinez-Torron & W. Cole Durham, eds. Religion And The Secular State: National Reports<\/em>, International Center for Law and Religious Studies, Madrid: servicio publicaciones facultad derecho Universidad Complutense Madrid, 2015, 157.<\/span> The current prison system is built on the legacy of religious repression in this country, starting with early colonization, continuing through residential schools, and permeating into the present day. In her work, Hoszko challenges viewers to see prison systems as complicated tools of the state that extend power relations outside of their walls. Further, she asks viewers, ostensibly in this case individuals outside the system, to position themselves in relation to this very dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the stained-glass works titled Statehood, Hoszko inverts the recognizable symbols of the Canadian and Qu\u00e9bec governments (the maple leaf and the fleur-de-lys) as well as the crown, symbolizing the arms-length relationship of the British government in Canadian proceedings. It is through this inversion that Hoszko invokes a refusal to engage with and conform to state control. Stained glass is most commonly found in churches and government buildings\u200a\u2014\u200ainstitutions of power\u200a\u2014\u200aand it is used to symbolize their importance. Working with stained glass for these pieces was a way for Hoszko to highlight the interrelated systems of power that govern the country. In the museum, the plates are displayed on the floor, arranged by each prison\u2019s distance from the museum itself, closest to farthest, as they have been elsewhere, and the oxidized copper sheets become visually minimized on the concrete. Unlike the brightly coloured stained glass hung from the MAJ\u2019s ceilings and in front of its large street-facing windows, the etched copper plates disappear. Similarly, prisons in Canada are nearly invisible to most citizens. Although half of Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s prisons are located in urban and suburban centres, they remain hidden from public knowledge; most citizens are (perhaps wilfully) unaware of the proximity of these institutions. Inversely, our churches and government buildings are hyper-visible and celebrated. As Hoszko notes, this is due to the ongoing invisibilization of those on the inside and those who are most in conflict with the law: \u201cIndigenous people, Black people, people of colour, people living with mental illness, and people living in poverty.\u201d10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 10 <\/a> - Sheena Hoszko, \u201c35+ Prisons in Qu\u00e9bec,\u201d Projects, Sheena Hoszko, www.sheenahoszko.com\/35prisonsinqc\/.<\/span> If the hyper-visibility (and adornments) of our Parliament buildings and churches is meant as a public reminder of proper behaviour, what does this say about the invisibility of incarcerated people from everyday discourse and our ignorance of prisons and detention centres?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n What would it really mean to actually abolish prisons? Neither Hoszko nor Ross offers a clear answer; rather, each asks the viewer to question how society would be different if we didn\u2019t lock people up, if we confronted the history and legacy of the prison-industrial complex in this country. In Unscrew the locks from the doors! (Un sortil\u00e8ge de lib\u00e9ration) <\/em>Ross casts a wide spell, asking those of us who are on the outside to keep our hearts and minds a little more open and to prove to the Pagans inside that even sites of incarceration can be the ground we dance on and celebrate the festival of Eros and life. We see a similar message with 35+ Prisons in Qu\u00e9bec<\/em>, through which Hoszko demands that we look at the prisons all around us and remain vigilant to various systems of repression, recognizing the ways in which incarceration continues the colonial project in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/95-DO-IM_Berson_JamieRoss1_CMYK-C-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/strong>XII, Unscrew the locks from the doors! (Un sortil\u00e8ge de lib\u00e9ration)<\/em>, installation view, coproduction Eastern Bloc, Montr\u00e9al, et Verticale, Laval, 2018
Photo: courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/95-DO-IM_Berson_10JamieRossAlexisBellavance1_CMYK-scaled.jpeg\")
Unscrew the locks from the doors! (Un sortil\u00e8ge de lib\u00e9ration)<\/em>, with collaboration of Alex Felicitas, FASTW\u00dcRMS, Faye Mullen, Hayley Lewis & Adam Cook, Laura Acosta, Marie la Vierge, Peaches Lepage, WY\u00efS\u00b4YA & Zuzu Knew, Verticale, Laval, 2018.
Photo: Alexis Bellavance, courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Both Sheena Hoszko and Jamie Ross have recently made artworks that speak to their experiences as anti-prison activists and abolitionists. Hoszko\u2019s project is very much about creating visibility. Her works call attention to the quantity and quality of prisons, both in Canada and abroad, while making ties to lesser-known forms of mass incarceration, such as immigration holding centres and Correctional Service Canada Mental Healthcare facilities and aims to further a dialogue around decolonial anti-prison work. Hoszko conceives of her project as a hyperlink toward anti-prison writings, resources, and organizations outside of the art world. She also provides a take-home zine and a selection of texts on-site for visitors to peruse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/95-DO-IM_Berson_IMG2_Jamie_Ross_photo_Alexis_bellavance_8x10_300dpi_CMYK.jpeg\")
Unscrew the locks from the doors! (sortil\u00e8ge de lib\u00e9ration)<\/em>, with collaboration of Alex Felicitas, FASTW\u00dcRMS, Faye Mullen, Hayley Lewis & Adam Cook, Laura Acosta, Marie la Vierge, Peaches Lepage, WY\u00efS\u00b4YA & Zuzu Knew, Verticale, Laval, 2018.
Photo: Alexis Bellavance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/95-DO-IM_Berson_12JamieRossKristenBrown1_CMYK-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/strong>Unscrew the locks from the doors! (Un sortil\u00e8ge de lib\u00e9ration)<\/em>, with collaboration of Alex Felicitas, FASTW\u00dcRMS, Faye Mullen, Hayley Lewis & Adam Cook, Laura Acosta, Marie la Vierge, Peaches Lepage, WY\u00efS\u00b4YA & Zuzu Knew, Verticale, Laval, 2018.
Photo: Kristen Brown <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/95-DO-IM_Berson_Hoszko_RGLZMUH_CMYK-scaled.jpeg\")
35+ Prisons in Qu\u00e9bec<\/em>, installation view, Mus\u00e9e d\u2019art de Joliette, Joliette, 2018.
Photo: Paul Litherland, courtesy of the artist & Mus\u00e9e d\u2019art de Joliette<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the stained glass, Hoszko presented a series of copper plates, which display rubbings that she made in front of each prison (federal and provincial) in Qu\u00e9bec between 2016 and 2017. The rubbings were made with cont\u00e9, charcoal, and crayon on paper, and she then photo-transferred the images onto individual acid plates. Each plate represents a distinct prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Traduit de l\u2019anglais par Isabelle Lamarre<\/p>\n\n\n