Laurie Jo Reynolds’ anti-carceral feminist art

A “supermax” is a prison consisting entirely of solitary confinement cells, where residents endure years of soul-crushing isolation. At the beginning of 2013, the only supermax prison in the state of Illinois was closed, thanks largely to the organizing work of an artist named Laurie Jo Reynolds, and the group she led, Tamms Year Ten. Their five-year lobbying campaign involved incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and their family members, legislators, and corrections officials, as well as members of the arts community and the public at large. Along with political results, this effort produced artifacts, installations, interventions, performances, and events. Both before and since the closure, Reynolds has also pursued projects on behalf of convicted sex offenders. Additionally, she has taken up initiatives on behalf of people leaving prison and re-entering society, including a project to “ban the box” on all Illinois state higher education applications. As a woman working primarily on issues affecting men, Reynolds nonetheless participates in a tradition of anti-racist feminist art, confronting the legacy of carceral feminism. While her works may be more ephemeral than a permanent public sculpture or mural, the lasting social impact she seeks to make, and has made, evokes the best sense of what Joseph Beuys termed “social sculpture.” Reynolds’ artwork has extended possibilities for the representation of despised and excluded individuals, and is helping to redefine what art can hope to accomplish in the public sphere.