Exhibition Launch: Wednesday 19 February | 6pm-8.30pm
The End of the Sentence presents artist Judy Price’s research into the history of Holloway Women’s Prison. The exhibition reflects on the impact of the criminal justice system on women and features new work by Price, archival material, and artists and writers invited by Price including Erika Flowers, Hannah Hull, Nina Ward, Katrina Mcpherson, Carly Guest and Rachel Seoighe. The project draws on networks, collaborations and relationships developed through Reclaim Holloway, which has been actively campaigning for a Women’s Building on the former prison site since 2016.
As part of The End of the Sentence, Price presents a new moving image installation staged in collaboration with Dorich House Museum which features a bronze sculpture of a baby by Dora Gordine (1895-1991) commissioned for the first Mother and Baby Unit at Holloway Women’s Prison in 1948. The soundtrack to the film explores the incarcerated pregnancy, drawing on the writing and fieldwork of midwife Dr Laura Abbott and Forensic Psychotherapist Pamela Windham Stewart. The script is re-voiced by actors from Clean Break, a women’s theatre company whose members have lived experience of the criminal justice system. For the duration of the exhibition at Stanley Picker Gallery, the original bronze sculpture Smiling Baby (1947-8), on loan from the National Justice Museum will be on display at Dorich House Museum in Kingston, Gordine’s former studio home.
Wednesday 19th February | 6pm
Judy Price in conversation with forensic psychotherapist Pamela Windham Stewart.
Pamela Windham Stewart has worked for over twenty years as a psychotherapist in several prisons, including HMP Holloway, where she has developed and facilitated therapy groups for mothers and babies who are incarcerated. Pamela lectures widely and is the founder of the Saturday Forensic Forum. She has a private practice and is a clinical supervisor. She is co-edited, with Jessica Collier, The End of the Sentence: Psychotherapy with Female Offenders. This seminal book documents the rich and varied psychotherapeutic work undertaken by dedicated specialists in HMP Holloway, and the often difficult environment, where attempts to provide psychological security were often undermined by conflicting ideas of physical security.
The title of the exhibition is borrowed from The End of the Sentence: Psychotherapy with Female Offenders, ed. Pamela Windham Stewart and Jessica Collier, Routledge, 2018. The editors have generously given the artist permission to use the title.
Stanley Picker Gallery
Kingston School of Art, Grange Road
Kingston upon Thames KT1 2QJ
https://www.stanleypickergallery.org/exhibitions/judy-price/