Today and tomorrow is all you’ve got to go see this exhibition of artworks by prisoners and inmates of secure facilities, currently showing at BALTIC (at the back of the level 2 play area) and Gateshead Central Library.
Alongside the visual art, there’s a free anthology of creative writing – and I was honoured to be invited to judge this writing, awarding money prizes to the top three (top in my opinion, that is – totally subjective!)
I’d like to have some profound comment to offer you, but all I’ve got so far is – I like weird, dark, disturbing, unheimlich art. But in writing I also need quite a bit of technical skill to enjoy it, whereas in visual art I am happy with quite rough-and-ready ‘outsider’ techniques, so long as the image itself makes me feel the shivers…
Perhaps I will try to write some pieces myself in response to these, my personal favourites…
Kirsten Luckins 