Ed Epping Artist Talk on The Corrections Project - Exonerated Individuals of the US Prison System
/Ed Epping presents pieces from the exhibition that on display at Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s El Zaguán through January 29, 2021.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
Ed Epping's current work, THE CORRECTIONS PROJECT, uses drawings, objects, collages, artist books, online postings, and public projects to explore the social injustices of overcriminalization and mass incarceration within the United States. Focusing on the individuals targeted by judicial systems and cultural policies, the work aims to build public knowledge by reimagining mass incarceration in the United States. This exhibition of portraits, THE CORRECTIONS PROJECT: Exonerated and Redress, selects a few of the over 2,683 individuals arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. All represented by their portrait served a minimum of 25 years before the criminal justice system corrected the mistakes made in handling justice. If you total the years these individuals were falsely imprisoned before being released, it would equal more than 24,150 years lost to injustice.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Ed Epping integrates his work as an imagist and activist through compound constructs. While each arena's work is not always analogous to the other, the processes share strategies that often engage language and image. These intersections form networks that require the viewer/reader to engage in the method of determining the work's meaning. He has found that when the image does not illustrate the word, and words do not caption the image, each offers an expanded role in their pairing. Social constructs are rife with intended systems that authority can manipulate to sustain control and diminish those who do not share equal access to either power or the codes. Peeling away veils—looking at that typically overlooked—is a primary strength of the arts. Epping, through his teaching, studio practice, and social justice engagements, enlists that principle as a focal point of his words and deeds. Granary Books has published four of Epping's earlier projects. His work is collected by the Museum of Modern Art-Artists Books Collection, Yale, Harvard, the Center for Creative Photography, The Art Institute of Chicago, University of Chicago, and the Getty Center, among others. Epping received an M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to teaching at Williams College (1977-2017), he has taught at the University of Illinois-Chicago and Central Michigan University. He was the AD Falk Professor of Studio Art at Williams College from 2001-2017. His work can be seen at edepping.com/ and on Instagram, @ed_epping. Epping lives in Galisteo, New Mexico.
Ed Epping’s resources for his art project THE CORRECTIONS PROJECT