The Shot Lock
The Shot Lock is a series of new works that explore
aspects of the story of The Maze/Long Kesh Prison.
This work plays with light and colour to capture the sense
of history and memory and the transformation of the empty
site.
The prison, like many prisons in Ireland, is steeped in the
history of Irish British politics and has acquired a
legendary status not just at home but around the world.
This exhibition goes beyond the ‘legend’ to explore a sense
of the place and its emptiness. Many of the artworks
have a resonance that is relevant to societies anywhere.
For example, apply the theme of isolated prisoners
ingeniously overcoming communication barriers with that of
the wider world where many unseen psychological barriers
that are generated by political and religious beliefs,
prevent communication between communities and individuals.
1. An Bfhuar Tu?
One of the many ways that protesting prisoners would
maintain communication between blocks; at night a prisoner
would ‘gullder’ out the window and into the darkness while
those in another block would maintain absolute silence to
hear the ‘sceal’ (news).
2. ‘Leg of Mutton’. Fling The Button
Prisoners had many ingenious forms of by-passing the
searches and a system designed to isolate them. ‘Leg
of Mutton’ was the slang term for the means of smuggling
information under the door and across the wing.
3. A Knife and Button
Prisoners would pull thread from their blankets, make a
length of string and tie it to a button. The button
was then flicked under the door across the wing where it
would entangle with a similar line flicked from the other
side. The thread would then be pulled across bringing
messages from one side to the other.
4. The Dowser
These items symbolised intense search activity of prison
staff and the inherent threat that this often involved.
5. ‘An Rang’
A prisoner down the wing with Gaelic shouted the Irish
lessons out and ‘students’ would write the lessons on the
wall with the smuggled lead of a pencil.
6. Water Bottle
During the protest, or solitary confinement, it was the only
and highly important source of water.
7. Empty Card Holder
Outside every cell was a card holder that contained the
name, sentence, DOB and other details of the prisoner(s).
In many ways, for me, this image symbolises the now empty
prison.
8. Emergency Button
These emergency buttons were located inside every strategic
part of the H blocks and all around the prison perimeter;
designed to be ‘hit by the screws’ to raise the alarm.
During the escape of 1983 they were among the first things
to be ‘secured’ by escaping prisoners.
9. The Comm.
On yellow
Cigarette papers were stuck together to make writing paper
and inscribed with tiny script using smuggled biros.
The letters were wrapped tightly in cling film and smuggled
out.
10. Obscura
The banality of the physical environment was everywhere –
almost everything was sterile and functional and watched.
11. Aerial View
An aerial view of a plastic poe (pot), a view that
prisoners would have contemplated several times a day and
night – portrayed here with a view of the waxing moon on the
base, another view that was regularly observed.
12. Centre Spot
The centre spot for kick-off in the exercise yard; football
was always played in the prison often with balls made from a
lump of mattress foam stuffed into an old sock.
13. Tension Wire and Goal Keeper
I have vivid personal memories of walking the yard with grey
sky, grey corrugated iron fence and even the tarmac appeared
grey, with the only colour being the ability of the human
spirit to carry on with craic, sports and life.
14. The Shot Lock
The lock image sums up the idea of confinement in a cell but
the shot lock here is a symbol of freedom and the closed
prison. It is prison practice to shoot (or set) all
the bolts on the door locks (so that the doors cannot be
closed) when a prison is unmanned.
15. ‘An train’
Prisoners would smuggle mass leaflets back to their cells
and use them for many things; one important function of the
mass leaflet was to make a ‘train’; a stiff piece of paper
that could be pushed through the gap between the wall and
the heating pipe into the next cell. The leaflet would
contain smuggled messages, and tobacco etc.
16. A Perimeter Tower
One of the security towers that surrounded the interior
phases of the prison
17. Lookout post
In later years tension wire was strung across the entire
prison to prevent helicopter escapes, blocking even the sky
from clear view.
18. ‘The Mexican’
These ‘street’ lights surrounded the perimeter of each
block and looked over the fence into the yards and the
blocks. They were nick named ‘Mexican Hats’ by some
prisoners.
19. A Cold Floor
During the Blanket Protest prisoners who were naked in cold
empty cells would often stand on the Bible to keep their
feet warm.
20. A Long Walk
Going for a walk. It was common during the protest
for prisoners to lean the mattress against the wall and go
for a ‘long walk’ up and down the cell.
21. The Legend
Limited edition print – created from a Maze Prison
security map, hand prints and keys. This print
illustrates how the place is physically corroding away.
The hand prints printed over the security map represent
community and family and how these primary influences can
blot out the memory of a place. The key being a symbol
of freedom also represents the ability to unlock our own
prisons and to move forward into the future.
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