Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller: Pandemonium

Using the existing elements in the prison cells, Cardiff and Miller will produce a percussive site work that is rhythmic and musical at some points and at other times pure sound as if a multitude of people or ghosts have inhabited the hall.

Nick Cassway: Portraits of Inmates in the Death Row Population Sentenced as Juveniles

Forty-one portraits depicting approximately half of the juveniles on death row today are stenciled onto 24" x 36" steel plates. The portraits line the 30 foot high perimeter wall outside of Cellblock 15, Eastern State’s "Death Row."

Ann Messner: penitentiary

An offset 28 page tabloid of full-page black and white photographs is distributed free of charge through a newspaper vending machine in Cellblock 10. The photographs are images taken within the complex that visualize a dual reality of the site: that it was once a penitentiary where people were imprisoned, that it is now a historical site where visitors are free to come and go.

Ted Shelton and Tricia Stuth: Point / Counterpoint: a conversation with Haviland

Located in Cellblock 10, Point / Counterpoint addresses the prison’s underlying concept and influential role as an architectural type – the radial prison.  If architecture can be seen as a humanistic discourse carried on between various practitioners over time, it is usually a conversation that is carried on indirectly and only through inference.  The opportunity to interject a counterpoint into an architect’s line of reasoning is a rare opportunity to speak directly and without equivocation – not in the hope of negating the original idea, but in letting each idea resonate according to its own merits.

Ianthe Jackson: Cellblock 9

A series of projected faces animating diverse expressions. Each of the animated faces express different psychological states - a representation of the humanity of the imprisoned individual.

Timothy Nohe: 142 Ways to Mark Time

In this site-specific work, 142 environmental and performance recordings are played back in the solitary cells of Cellblock Ten, and intermixed in the common corridor of the cellblock.

Terry Adkins: Sanctuary

A sculpture 'recital' about the legendary abolitionist John Brown (1800 - 1859). The exhibit investigates his incarceration in a Virginia prison cell for forty days and forty nights before he was publicly hanged on December 2, 1859.

Erin Weckerlie: Evidence

A carpet of prison-issue pillows are sewn together creating a grid-like, quilted surface cover the massive stone corridor and cell floors. Inmate numbers are embroidered on the pillowcases, further suggesting the prisoners to whom the pillows would have belonged, and personalizing a seemingly inhumane prison issued number.

Ian Vail: then there here now

A two part video installation - one in a cell, the other in close proximity to Center. Forming a stream of images, the piece attempts to construct a picture of the building. A final image that inevitably falls short of its task as the building’s presence, both in space and time, is far greater than one can experience.

Ron Levine and Michael Wou: Prisoners of Age

White-haired Walker Smith could be your grandfather. At 76, he is in the third decade of a life sentence for murder. Incarcerated at the Hamilton Correctional Institute for the Aged and Infirm in Alabama, he is one of a growing number of inmates in penitentiaries devoted to geriatric care. Photographer Ron Levine and Michael Wou have spent four years documenting this unique population.

Ilan Sandler: Arrest

Unimaginable Isolation

Nicholas Kripal: Contemplation/Cultivation

A two-part site-specific sculpture - one a small pool, the other a garden - referencing the early penal philosophies of Eastern State Penitentiary: rehabilitation through isolation vs. rehabilitation through labor. Both pieces are highly detailed models of the Penitentiary's early architecture.

Troy Richards: The Criminal Us: Anonymous Confessions Juxtaposed

Anonymous written confessions from convicted criminals and the "average citizens" are presented throughout the installation. Without specifically stating which confessions are those of convicted criminals and which are not, the implications of a label are removed, leaving only the acts themselves.

Michael O'Reilly: O'Reilly vs. United States

Richard Torchia: Daylights

A series of camera obscura projections and other "interventions" at Eastern State Penitentiary. Daylights is composed of pieces ranging from large-scale optical works to more ephemeral, performative gestures.

Mary DeWitt: Life Sentences: Portraits of Women Serving Life Without Parole

Ms DeWitt has painted the faces of women serving life sentences on large sheets of glass, and hung them beneath the skylights in each cell. Each portrait is accompanied by the subject’s voice, quietly explaining the nature of her crime and details of her life in prison without parole.

Tablula Rasa: Obscure Cities

Prison Sentences: The Prison as Site/ The Prison as Subject

A exhibition of temporary site-specific installations.