“Breakin rocks in the hot sun... I fought the law and the law won”, the opening lines of Sonny Curtis’ 1958 hit song, epitomize the hard manual labour historically associated with incarceration. But softer forms of penal labour also occur inside prisons. When undertaken in contexts of such sensory extremes, carceral craft has the potential to act as a tool of further oppression, or offer an outlet for expression. Through colonial and contemporary examples such as needlework in South African prisons and batik production in Indonesia, this lecture attempts to offer a reminder of the fundamental ambiguity that underpins the labour of textile craft.
A talk with Professor Jessica Hemmings, HDK-Valand, Academy of Art and Design, University of Gothenburg, part of the At The Margins exhibition programme. The themes in this talk link to the deeply thoughtful, poetic work of Franz Petter Schmidt who has been responding to the history of the former workhouse in Oslo where his studio has been based.
This is a hybrid event - Jessica will be speaking live online via Zoom from Sweden, with some audience members gathering at the Museum, and others joining online.
If you wish to attend online, here is the Zoom invite:
Time: 15:00 BST (GMT + 1 hour)
Topic: Beyond Heritage
https://uib.zoom.us/j/66132100696?pwd=U1VEbTA5R3JGaGdVNnZydDMvRWp0dz09
Meeting ID: 661 3210 0696
Password: Vbw9xm5C
If you’d like to attend in person, please book online or call 01453 763394.
