For two months, the Southbank Centre’s ground floor is being occupied by grey cell blocks – a brutalist and authoritarian structure is how Ai Weiwei wanted to showcase his collection. However, every inch of these walls is lined by over 6,500 pieces of artwork collected from multiple prisons in a new exhibition named Koestler Arts: Freedom.
On its sixtieth anniversary, Koestler Arts decided to take its original purpose and bring its scope even further. The exhibition is immersive, bringing you into the atmosphere of the criminal justice system itself, and presents the artworks almost exactly in the conditions that they were made in the first place – in a cell block, by somebody in the system. It allows you to see inside the minds of those that are incarcerated and what they are prioritising in their work.
A particularly striking pattern throughout the exhibition was that of consumerism, with many prisoners deciding to incorporate brands into their pieces. This was true especially for one set of artwork shown in the same ‘cell block’ – all related to food and the set theme of ‘taste’.
Chocolate Dreams was created in the HM Prison in Downview, a relatively minimal piece made from pen, pencil and watercolour which simply depicts a person sleeping in bed with a caption above: ‘Mmm I dream of Chocolate!’. In this person’s dream thought bubble is a collection of branded chocolate bars – Toblerone, Snickers, Quality Streets, Maltesers are just the beginning of the list.
As well as showing the desire for small luxuries such as comfort food, which cannot be enjoyed as often when you are in the criminal justice system, it also shows the impact of branding on the human brain. This person has drawn almost perfectly the colours, packaging type and logo of every chocolate bar they have shown – consumerism truly leaves embedded memories in your head, sometimes without the individual even realising the impact it is creating.
Although there are a few unbranded generic products such as hot chocolate and chocolate cake, the vast majority of commodities depicted are attached to a name and a distinguished look. Even in the detached version of reality that those in the criminal justice system experience, these familiar comforts are lusted after – perhaps because of the associations with the outside world, culture and living a ‘normal’ life.
Despite this being a simple piece with perhaps not much artistic skill, it very effectively portrays what a prisoner is thinking during their time in the system. Made with whatever medium the person can get their hands on whilst incarcerated just to talk about branded comfort food seems strange given that they can make art about anything, but this actually shows the innate need for normality that is ingrained in us as a society and fuelled by consumption. According to bigthink.com, brands “can make us feel emotions that have nothing to do with the functions of their products”.
Another example of this is named Taste, originating from the HM Young Offender Institution in Polmont. The piece is solely made up of bottle caps and ‘junk’ food wrappers, assumedly from what the individual could get whilst in prison. This is a sizeable collection, ranging from mayonnaise packets to Maynard’s Bassets to a Jaffa Cakes chocolate bar.
This was clearly collected over time, highlighting once again the importance of home comforts to these people, and it is interesting that this piece was made by a young person. An individual who collected branded objects that presumably reminded them of life beyond incarceration. From an exhibition-goer’s perspective this may seem like an unassuming, low-effort artwork simply collaging plastic wrappers, but is portrays a near-obsession to be attached to reality – because life for this individual can feel like they are on the outside of society.
Ai Weiwei exhibits a huge range of art in the Southbank centre, including poetry and sculptures, but these two pieces in particular were very striking in the sense that they showed a raw need for normality among the incarcerated. Inspired by his brief stay of detention in China, Weiwei was inspired to give others the chance to showcase themselves and show the general public what life as a prisoner is like.
Most of this work is available for sale at the exhibition, which will be reserved until December 18th, the end of the showcase. The artists were able to price their own work or decide if they want it to be sold, and Koestler Arts also gives people the chance to write a note to the artists whose pieces particularly struck them as interesting.
You can plan a visit to the exhibition here, which has free entry and is staffed by some ex-criminal justice system members, bringing some more authenticity to your experience.
To read more on how branding affects the human brain: https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/how-apple-and-nike-have-branded-your-brain/