Curatorial Projects > The Prison Project (2008)

Plain Human
Wear Orange, March 11 - Prisoner Awareness Day, 2008
Mixed media installation (detail)

Plain Human is a collaborative group of creators, designers and activists based in San Francisco who have friends and family members incarcerated in California and National Correctional Institutions. Plain Human, broadly in scale, scope and local context, create art projects that seek to reconsider and re-imagine the Prison Industrial Complex. It is situated in the domains of environmental installation, performance, graphic art, and activism.

Plain Human is organizing a campaign that will symbolize the scope of incarceration in San Francisco and other cities by inviting the public to wear orange on Tuesday March 11, 2008. Anyone can participate by simply wearing the color orange. The scope of the outfit is left up to the individual’s capacity; one may wear a high security jump suit, an orange t-shirt, or an orange button. Why wear the color orange? This color is often culturally understood to signify hazard and danger. The same signifiers affect relatives and friends of incarcerated people and prisoners because it creates fear and causes alienation and shame. By collectively wearing this color in a public space, you can help to subvert the silence and join in the non-violent protest against the abusive treatment of prisoners.

The Prison Project

February 20 - March 29, 2008
Intersection for the Arts
San Francisco, CA

Photo credit: Scott Chernis