Cathryn Jiggens

When Cathryn arrived at the Courthouse, she was offered the use of one of the cells as a ‘studio’. This stimulated her into thinking around issues of bodily confinement and imprisonment, and mental and spiritual freedom.

Cathryn worked with local artists taking photographs of glimpses, of treasured views of domesticity that prisoners locked in the cell might yearn for, the freedoms that might be lost, as they awaited a decision as to their future.

The home as a site of tension between the expression or entrapment of identity then emerged as a strong theme. Just as the mind can wander freely when the body is locked in a windowless cell, so can domestic interiors become imprisoning places.

The final installation comprised many tiny images of domesticity pasted onto the hard, shiny and unforgiving walls of the cell. An armchair and carpet set up a contradiction between the small, featureless cell and the comfort of home, while a TV set played a continuous video. This was a collaborative piece, created with dancer Helen Winfield, and was a fluid and poignant expression of the constraints imposed by domestic spaces.

In the Heritage cell, further images of a crow taking flight were placed across the room, bringing attention to the tiny high window through which the freedom of birds in flight could just occasionally be seen.

Cathryn also worked collaboratively with writer Jessica Penrose, producing a series of videos that explore the constraints of domestic space that respond to Jessica's poems. The poems can be read on: Jessica Penrose poems.