Seeing Through Stone brings together artwork by contemporary artists from around the globe whose work engages prisons, justice and freedom. Moving beyond exhibitions that are about prisons and instead oriented towards artists who help provide a vision—and a model—of abolition in practice, Seeing Through Stone highlights global networks of care and abolitionist world-building.

Bringing together artwork by over 40 artists and collectives including 14 new commissions, Seeing Through Stone features works which reflect the global scope of carceral conditions and the movements resisting prisons world-wide. With reference to poet Etheridge Knight’s evocation of those who have “the secret eyes”—Seeing Through Stone highlights the works of artists, including those who are formerly and currently incarcerated, that offer a vision beyond carceral systems, drawing out the flourishing collective story and alternative imagining currently underway in creating a future free of prisons.

PULL DOWN THE BROWN BAG PDF FOR THE WALK THROUGH NOTES

This is the largest, multi-sited exhibition to-date co-organized with Institute of the Arts and Sciences at University of California, Santa Cruz as part of the ongoing Visualizing Abolition series.

Artists include Frank Alejandrez, Rebecca Belmore, Reginald BoClair, Imani Jaqueline Brown, Sharon Daniel, Caleb Duarte and Barrios Unidos, Cian Dayrit, Explode! collective, Frente 3 de fevereiro, Charles Gaines, Guillermo Galindo, Maria Gaspar, Amber Ginsburg and Aaron Hughes, Gabriela Golder, Patricia Gómez and Maria Jesús González Fernández, Shilpa Gupta, Ashley Hunt, Steffani Jemison, Mariame Kaba and Rachel Wallis, Sofia Karim, Bouchra Khalili, Robert King, Mulheres Possíveis, Carlos Motta, Gabriela Mureb, Huong Ngô, Sharon Daniel, O grupo inteiro, Samora Pinderhughes, Sherrill Roland, Sable Elyse Smith, jackie sumell, Hajra Waheed, Levester Williams, Timothy James Young, among others.

Poem by Etheridge Knight

He Sees Through Stone

He sees through stone
he has the secret
eyes this old black one
who under prison skies
sits pressed by the sun
against the western wall
his pipe between purple gums

the years fall
like overripe plums
bursting red flesh
on the dark earth

his time is not my time
but I have known him
in a time gone

he led me trembling cold
into the dark forest
taught me the secret rites
to make it with a woman
to be true to my brothers
to make my spear drink
the blood of my enemies

now black cats circle him
flash white teeth
snarl at the air
mashing green grass beneath
shining muscles

ears peeling his words
he smiles
he knows
the hunt the enemy
he has the secret eyes
he sees through stone