Geographies of Detention

The main gallery of the museum is devoted largely to the contemporary context and landscape of California’s “golden gulag.” One portion of the exhibition highlights work by artists Birk, Emdur and Richard Ross, each of whom explores different aspects of imprisonment. Films by Shigematsu, Ashley Hunt and the Los Angeles Poverty Department are presented throughout the building. Prison populations in California have grown 500 percent in the last three decades even as crime rates subside, and prison spending continues to increase while state funding for higher education declines, co-curators Catherine Gudis and Molly McGarry said. Many artists have begun to address social justice issues raised by the incarceration of so many individuals, and some are making connections between the architectural landscape of Guantánamo and California prisons, they added.