We are very excited that you were so inspired by our presentation. I am going to send the artist, Sam Easterson, a link to this discussion so that he has the opportunity to respond too. I think he will be quite interested in how his work has influenced your thinking about perspective.

Please feel free to contact Daniel or myself if you have ideas for collaboration!

The works that I documented was certainly left by the prisoners themselves. But, I would not agree if it were done in the format of “art” as we understand in gallery context, as they were done in a personal inscriptions & the majority of it states as a form of a reminder, whether if it were for the one who wrote / illustrates it or for the ones who are going to occupy the same space.

These illustrations & writings are quite significantly diverse in its styles as much as the cultures behind it. As I went through quite a number of interviews with ex-convicts that was an occupant, they barely mentioned the significance of the graffiti, yet they shared the memories & experiences they had, which I think is a supportive elements towards certain graffiti.

I had never dare to push the intention to claim it wholly as my own work, as it was done by others. But to have it significantly understood the reasons & where it came from, or what could be understood from these graffiti, which I think, would be far more worthy risk & as a form of reference.

On the side note…Despi, I could not stop cheering & mentioning your project that was really interesting to ponder on & it had a lot of potential to be so influential & diverse in further approach in surveillance or Point-of-View art forms.

It had left me a great impressions that I almost immediately sponsor a local researcher here with cameras to study animals in captivity (which was poorly funded)at a local zoo here.

Hope that you don’t take it as a copy your project, as it is only a form of study & research format. Not mounting on the head of the animals.. just a fixed positioned camera @ 24-hour access freely for the public (still in Beta stage) which we are making a case study for the carnivores in captivity.

Thank you again for sharing. Really made me do good.

-Azril

Of course, you know I’m awfully interested in how we document and record contemporary art here at the IMA and elsewhere. It’s interesting how the lines blur between what is the “art” in this project — is it the images that Ismail took or the art that was left behind by the prisoners? I suppose the answer is both.

In the same way I was intrigued by the Eastern exhibit as the presentation of that project had so much to do with the art itself, again slightly blurring the lines about what is “the art.”

I work as an Office Administrator at the Museum of Art in Fayetteville. Being an internet enthusiast, I’ve begun a blog and a Myspace for our little Museum. We have big plans for our future (a new nine story building designed by world renowned architect Enrique Norten) and wondered if I might pick either of your brains on how to grow these things, and perhaps a way to incorporate into exhibits…

Help!

-erica