Sam Durant, "Labyrinth" (2015), Municipal Services Building, Thomas Paine Plaza, 1401 JFK Blvd., Philadelphia (© 2015 Sam Durant, Photos by Steve Weinik)

A view of Sam Durant’s “Labyrinth” (2015) during week two, Municipal Services Building, Thomas Paine Plaza, 1401 JFK Blvd., Philadelphia (all images © 2015 Sam Durant, photos by Steve Weinik, courtesy Mural Arts)

The US prison system is one of the world’s great shames. A quarter of the world’s prisoners are being detained in a country that represents only 5% of the world’s population. It is a system that has been compared to a modern-day version of the Jim Crow laws. Through the work of activists and human rights defenders, we’re seeing more and more evidence that the prisons represent a dysfunctional system that perpetuates white supremacy and victimizes the poor in the United States.

Sam Durant in front of "Labyrinth" (2015)

Sam Durant in front of “Labyrinth” (2015)

This month, a public art project organized by the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, Open Source, explores aspects of the city’s urban identity including the troubling impact of the prison-industrial complex. Curated by Pedro Alonzo, the 14 projects of Open Source tackle what the curator described to Hyperallergic as “Philadelphia’s essential character.”

Responses to that essential character have included Michelle Angela Ortiz’s ambitious “Familias Separadas” (“Separated Families”) (2015) project, which amplified the tragic stories of undocumented families whose lives are affected by deportations, and Jonathan Monk’s two skateable sculptures based on concrete works by minimalist Sol LeWitt that challenged preconceived notions of how an audience interacts with public art. Open Source also includes Sam Durant‘s “Labyrinth” (2015).

A paper affixed to the chain-link fence of "Labyrinth" (2015)

A paper affixed to the chain-link fence of “Labyrinth” (2015)

Durant is an artist who seems to easily navigate the boundaries between politics and contemporary art. His work often pokes at official histories to raise questions about authority, power, and representation. For “Labyrinth,” the LA-based artist did something he had never done before: he started with a rough idea and allowed his process, which included consultations with inmates at Graterford maximum security state prison, to mold the result. “It was scary to start a project without any idea of what will happen and trusting the project to see how things would change,” Durant said.

"Labyrinth" (2015) with Philadelphia City Hall on the top right. (click to enlarge)

“Labyrinth” (2015) with Philadelphia City Hall on the top right. (click to enlarge)

Eventually Durant decided, with input from the inmates, curator, and Mural Arts, to tackle the quagmire of criminal justice by placing “Labyrinth” (2015), a 40-by-40-foot maze made of chain link fencing, across the street from Philadelphia’s City Hall in Thomas Paine Plaza. The location is important, as it becomes a prominent symbol under the nose of the city’s seat of power, but it is also a place that Philadelphia blogger Jon Geeting has called a “failed public space.” Open areas like this, sandwiched between prominent buildings, are rarely inviting and often run down. If such prominent urban spaces are neglected, the project seems to say, then imagine the public’s blindness to the lives of inmates who are forcibly detained and isolated from the public.

While “Labyrinth” was bare when it was unveiled on October 1, the work has slowly changed as members of the public placed items on the barriers as commentary on the larger social issue of incarceration. Works by inmates, their families, concerned citizens, street artists, and others have slowly accumulated on the fence and have turned the initially transparent structure into something with obstructions and visual barriers.

At "Labyrinth" (2015)

At “Labyrinth” (2015)

“The main challenge is the ways in which the piece is activated,” Durant told Hyperallergic months before the project opened. He hoped that the interaction would be meaningful to the inmates and the people walking by, and he said that would be his gauge for the piece’s success.

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An object affixed to “Labyrinth” (2015)

The symbolism of a maze or labyrinth is deeply embedded in various mythic traditions. In Ancient Greece, what might be the most famous labyrinth trapped the Minotaur, a masculine creature with the head of a bull and body of a man, who could never escape its twists and turns. The meaning is obvious — the US penal system rendered as a largely useless disorienting structure. For the artist, the ability to communicate directly to those passing by drove the form, while complementary events (like an artist talk and a workshop) augmented the message.

While a work like Durant’s might be construed as too controversial in other cities, Mural Arts is a unique organization that has been continuously pushing the parameters of art in the public sphere in Philadelphia.

"Labyrinth" on Thursday, October 29.

“Labyrinth” on Thursday, October 29.

“It’s about the social power that art has,” Jane Golden, executive director of Mural Arts, said during an interview with Hyperallergic. “Politics for me is about change. When we pigeonhole what political art is then we’re doing a disservice to the artist because there are many ways change can happen.” It’s a refreshing approach to the relationship between art and politics.

“To me, Mural Arts is bread and roses in practice, it’s like survival and beauty,” Durant said. “It’s a pilot for the way all cities can be, and the government can operate. It’s about bringing life and beauty … creativity and imagination … to our social and political institutions. It’s really unique.”

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“Labyrinth” is as much about trying out the language of public art in a way that relishes the process as it is about the finished work. While the fences of the maze never became as saturated with public messages as the artist may have originally imagined, there are a number of poignant message nonetheless. One, signed S.M. Rodriguez, reads, “We are losing out future.” Another, written by Mary Lewis, reads, “I never want to be on the inside again.”

Durant has placed the blight of incarceration in the public’s face; the choice to ignore it or take action is your choice.

Michael Ta'Bon's spot beside "Labryinth" (2015)

Michael Ta’Bon’s spot beside “Labryinth” (2015)

And this weekend, performance artist and activist Michael Ta’Bon, no stranger to prison-related protests, has chosen not to look away. He will be spending Friday and Saturday nights sleeping in a bodybag next to “Labyrinth.”

Sam Durant’s “Labyrinth” (2015) continues through Sunday, November 1 in Thomas Paine Plaza at the Municipal Services Building, Center City, Philadelphia.

Hrag Vartanian is editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hyperallergic.

4 replies on “A Maze in Philadelphia Focuses Attention on the Hidden Cruelty of US Prisons”

  1. The prisons and the unholy numbers of people in them are merely one of many shameful issues and practices in the United States. They all stem from the same root – corporate capitalists, using governments as their servant and proxy, treating the entire world, including people, as commodities from which to profit. While exposes like this provide brief breaks in the clouds of all-encompassing propaganda, the overall pattern is plain to see, and treating each issue, like prisons, in isolation and applying a quick fix analogous to using a bandaid on cancer, is futile without treating the cause.

  2. Dawan Packy Williams and I were on location engaging with the public during the last two weeks of this project… scroll thru my Facebook Page (Kathryn Pannepacker) to look at the many photos and video/interviews- also some pics on Instagram kpannepacker- what a powerful installation.
    Many thanks to Sam Durant, visionary artist . Also to Jane Golden, Pedro Alonzo, Will CB, Robyn Buseman and Rj Vandalog Rushmore at the Mural Arts Program.

  3. I wonder what it says that, in the paragraph describing the significance of “Labyrinth”‘s location, the author has chosen not to mention the weighted irony of the square’s name: Thomas Paine Plaza. Paine would be right at home, and at the forefront of, any modern progressive issue you might name, including this one. Although an Englishman, Paine was perhaps the most radical lover of liberty among founding fathers, and in that capacity deserves remembrance in a context like this one. For one thing, it’s notable that he himself was jailed for his writing and speeches countless times,
    more than any other Revolutionary leader.Of course I realize the venue’s name is pure serendipity, but still it does us no good as contemporary radicals to indulge in historical amnesia.

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