Working Drawing for Shrine to the Living

Computer-generated study for an artwork comprising 90+ profile-silhouettes of prisoners drawn from life, laser-cut and gilded, and inscribed with a message/image dedicated by a prisoner to a living entity outside the prison (for example, a football team, country, loved one, friend or pet). Shrine to the Living is partly inspired by certain kinds of ex voto (votive offering) sold in Latin countries to represent body parts and other significant objects, and fixed to the walls and ceilings of sacred spaces by donors as materially-embodied 'prayers' of supplication or thanks for the cure of medical ailments, lovesickness, safe return of loved-ones etc. The work's 'panoptic' laying out of profiles will evoke the prison’s regimenting and depersonalising tendencies, with the diversity and individualism found in the actual models themselves acting as a foil; reflecting the opposites inherent in the relationship between the prison and its inhabitants (e.g. personal/ impersonal, subjective/objective, organic/mechanical, unconformity/ conformity). A contrast between the relative humbleness of plywood substrate and precious metal coating will reflect that between the circumstances of the images' origins and the value attached to the wishes inscribed in them. While referring to the cultures and practices of votive offering, the collection of prisoners' images within the frame will also constitute a genuine (secular) shrine in its own right.