the art & writing of

MAUREEN KELLEHER

March April May 2013

ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS,

PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

96" x 96"

(8 feet x 8 feet)

mixed media: enamel, latex and spray paints, padlocks, chains, wire, barbed wire, mesh wire, images on paper, rock, paper, scissors, engraving, us. currency, door bolts, on wood.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Engraved Text across the 3 panels:

(see below)

=======================

To Conservator: materials in tis work:

padlocks, chains, wire, barbed wire, mesh wire, paper, scissors, a rock, enamel and spray paint,

The Words Engraved throughout this piece:

++ Prison Industrial Complex

++ the stupid

++ the retarded who don't look it

++ the bait

++ the overcharged

++ the under represented

++ two points shy of normal

++ the innocents

++"Leadbelly and Little Booker both had the pleasure of partying on the Ponderosa" *

* LA State Penitentiary

++How to negotiate Fresh Fish Thursdays?

++some are minnows, some are not.

++The Coffle Club

84156

97153

86100

052359

++ Free Gary Tyler -- an American son

++ 10-7-74 Where were you?

++ Nelson Mandela did 27 years; Gary is in his 37th year of imprisonment.

Artist’s Note:

There are millions of men and women in the prison in 2008. There will be a growing percentage of the population in prison in the next decades. Some are innocent, some are gravely overcharged. And others [outsiders, free persons,] are making a huge profit from the incarceration industry.

A small tribute to Gary Tyler, imprisoned since 10.7.74, for a crime he did not commit. Gary is now in his 37^th year at Louisiana State Penitentiary.