cage(d)

Mixed media installation

Much of memoirist, poet, and mental health advocate Sarith Peou’s life has been marked by a lack of bodily agency, including surviving the Cambodian genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s, displacement from labor camps to refugee camp, and his current incarceration. Sarith partnered with choreographer Carl Flink to restore greater agency to Sarith’s long and difficult  journey. The “bars” and walls of this “cell” are covered with Sarith’s writing, which also float above the barriers like leaves. Within the “cell” lies the option to watch cage(d), a short film Sarith and Carl created together that includes a short film postscript with Black Label Movement performer Cheng Xiong executing Sarith’s exercise routine in the “cell’s” confining area.  Sarith and Carl metaphorically place the viewer in Sarith’s shoes, emphasizing his persistent resilience in the face of continued isolation. As you move through the “cell,” is the opportunity to read selected writings by Sarith before they become leaves and fly away.

ABOUT SEEN @ WAM

SEEN is a WAAC exhibition featuring currently incarcerated artists, activists, and students in collaboration with artists, activists, and academics in the Twin Cities community who together explore issues of incarceration, isolation, healing, and coming home.

Representing a range of cultural, personal, and professional backgrounds and diverse forms of artistic expression, people on the “inside” partnered with people on the “outside” on the basis of creative curiosities and personal affinities. This exhibition is laid out across two galleries that evoke the “inside,” carceral (east) and “outside,” healing and community (west) experiences.

The seven-installation exhibit works to stretch the bounds of the museum as a site for community engagement and critical examination of American carceral institutions.

Teams have worked together to better understand and explore carceral isolation and trauma and the many ways it has caused generational harm in their own bodies and those of their descendants. To bring healing to the cycle of harm, they connect their families, the community, and even themselves, through this exhibition thoughtfully curated with cacophony and quiet, isolation and community, criticism and celebration.