Reclaiming Our Roots: Cultural Reflections by Incarcerated Artists

About the Artists

Edmund "Eddy_PRS" Washington (he/him)
Edmund "Eddy_PRS" Washington is a self taught visual artist who expresses himself more with pastel and charcoal. The decade he has been drawing has been for therapeutic purposes and the sharpening of the skills and now he wishes to share his raw emotions.

My journey in art depends on two things. 1: My Three objectives. 2: My mental state.

My three objectives consist of eliminating my Debt to society, solidifying my financial foundation for when I come home, and to redeem myself by passing my gift and wisdom to the next generation.  My mental state could jump from my conscious connection to my ancestors, all the way down to a turbulent emotional frequencies depending on where I allow my intellect to find comfort at the time.

All in all, I just want you to be able to see the statement my brain is making to possibly create a conversation. That conversation may not be with me, but the spark is the purpose.
 

Siaosi Scanlan (he/him)
My name is Siaosi Scanlan. I am a self-taught visual artist as well as performing artist. I started doing graffiti when I was 11 years old in 1990. At 17 years old I went to prison and that's when I got into drawing and tattooing to be able to take care of myself financially. In 2020, during covid, I started doing more commissioned drawings and cards for prisoners. This made me realize the potential of my talent and it inspired me to explore other mediums like charcoal and acrylic paints. I have also done wood burnings. As a performing artist, I take a lot of pride and honor in preserving my culture through dancing and community education and empowerment. 

About the Exhibit

Reclaiming Our Roots: Cultural Reflections by Incarcerated Artists highlights the importance and beauty of connecting with one’s culture while incarcerated. Several of the featured artists are members and leaders of cultural awareness groups designed to educate BIPOC prisoners about their cultural identities and promote personal growth and community building. In recent years, policy changes within the Washington State Department of Corrections have severely limited free cultural expression by disallowing peer-led programming and censoring cultural groups’ curricula, events, and activities. 

Having cultural spaces inside where prisoners can find belonging and collective community is a vital lifeline. It keeps them rooted in their identity instead of the labels placed on them by the system and forges invaluable connections with communities outside prison. Cultural art and expression are inextricably linked with cultural education and empowerment that transcends the confines of prison politics. Therefore, the practice of culture — for prisoners — is resistance just as much as it is restoration and liberation. 

Each of the participating artists identified regions and cultures from their ancestry, and staff at the Burke Museum helped them choose a corresponding item from the museum’s Heritage: Arts & Cultures collections. The selected items served as inspiration for the artists to create pieces paying homage to their roots. The featured artworks were inspired by items from Ivory Coast, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Samoa, Mexico, Philippines, and Cambodia, as well as the Echota Cherokee and Blackfeet Nation tribes. Some artists have selected culturally significant creations from past Solidarity Art Collective shows to display alongside their specially curated pieces. 

The exhibit will feature recorded commentary from artists about partnering with the Burke Museum and how the experience impacted their connection to the past. These artists have deep love for their history, their culture, and their people as a whole. There is no greater opportunity for them to express this than the one the Burke Museum has extended through this collaboration. This process of connecting with previously unknown parts of their history has already breathed new life into the movement for cultural preservation behind bars.