Solitary Garden with jackie sumell

Solitary Garden with jackie sumell
Opening reception: Nov. 5, 5:30-6:45 pm
Exhibit: Tuesday, Nov. 5 – Sunday, Dec. 6
Baskin Art Studios Quad, UC Santa Cruz

TRACTION: Art Talk with Jackie sumell
Nov. 5, 7pm – following opening reception
Digital Arts Research Center (DARC) 108, UCSC

FREE and open to the public

Solitary Garden is a participatory public sculpture and garden project by jackie sumell. Located overlooking the Monterey Bay near the Baskin Art Studios at UC Santa Cruz, the sculpture takes the size and shape of a solitary confinement cell. The stark 6x9 sculpture is surrounded by a garden tended and planted as a collaboration between Tim Young, a prisoner currently incarcerated at San Quentin, and students and volunteers at UC Santa Cruz. As plants grown and climb the bars of the prison cell, the project aims to allow the community to imagine a landscape without prisons.

A deep commitment to addressing the abuses of the American criminal justice system drives sumell's art practice, as exemplified by her 11-year collaborative project with the late Herman Wallace, one of the former Angola 3 prisoners. The project, entitled The House That Herman Built is the subject of a critically acclaimed documentary film, Herman's House, which aired on PBS