Seeing Through Stone

Centering the voices of the currently and formerly incarcerated, works from 80 contributors visualize a prison-free future

Published with Institute of the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz and San José Museum of Art.

Prisons are so ingrained in history and the cultural imagination as to appear inevitable. Yet as long as prisons have existed, alternative rehabilitations have flourished. Seeing through Stone accompanies the largest-ever exhibition emerging from the movement for prison abolition in the United States. It draws its title from a work by poet Etheridge Knight (1931-91), who wrote his first collection while incarcerated at Indiana State Prison. The art and texts in this catalog explore this shared capacity for the radical sight permeating through prison walls and include contributions from artists, writers and activists both currently and formerly incarcerated, alongside those without that lived experience. Over 80 artists and collectives from around the world contribute work, while the original texts are authored by such activists as Robin D.G. Kelley and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.