Artists begin residency in Shepton Mallet former prison

Luminara said exploring the role of prison wardens fostered a sense of responsibility towards the artists in residency

A group of 13 women artists have taken up residency in a former prison to create individual displays inspired by the building's history.

Each artist's cell in the C wing at Shepton Mallet prison, Somerset covers different themes ranging from isolation, respect and empathy to women's rights and society's attitudes to crime and punishment.

Artist and curator Luminara Florescu, from Bruton said: "I'm interested in bringing art to unusual places and due to the pandemic many artists felt isolated over the past 18 months.

"This was a wonderful way to bring all female artists together in a unique space that has a very rich history."

Victoria Bone is considering the ritualistic patterns of movement women created for themselves while incarcerated

Ms Florescu is examining the theme of prison wardens in Victorian women's prisons.

"I was really taken with their costume and what's very striking, their huge bunch of keys marking who's in charge, but at the same time getting this real sense that they were looking after these female prisoners and that was their job and so they were like carers."

The C wing in Shepton Mallet housed women because the cells were slightly larger than normal. Some women were jailed while pregnant and later gave birth and nursed their babies there.

Fiona Winning wanted to see how privacy and respect was possible for inmates

Fiona Winning's cell explores the theme of respect and the notion of privacy as an inmate.

She worked with C category male prisoners in her previous career as a motivational coach.

She said: "I was suddenly struck as I stepped over the threshold of the cell that this would have been their private space.

"It struck me that for one moment I didn't consider that this was a threshold - it inspired a train of thinking about how I go about my daily life not always recognising when I go from one place into another.

"My memory of working in prisons was that there was no privacy, the only privacy of a sort was inside one's head.

One of the prisoners was 13-year-old Janet Coombs who was jailed for stealing a petticoat

Another inmate was Hester Rush who was jailed for being homeless on Christmas Eve in 1859

Artist Janice Kirby Brown is registered blind and spent more than a year in lockdown with her husband owing to his health.

She is exploring isolation and has spent time alone in her cell to get a sense of what it could be like for women prisoners in Victorian times.

Isolation in a prison setting has been the subject of Janice Kirby Brown's residency

Some women were confined to their cell to work, eat and sleep and had to wear masks while seeing the prison chaplain or going outdoors for exercise.

"There were a couple of incidents when I would hear people talking outside and the talking would suddenly stop."

"Just for a moment there was this horrible feeling of have they forgotten me? Have they left me here?"

Polly Hall, is an artist from Shepton Mallet. Her cell is covered in white balloons tied with purple and green to represent the colours of the suffragettes who were imprisoned as they campaigned for the right to vote in the early 20th Century.

Women's rights are being explored by Shepton Mallett artist Polly Hall

She said: "The balloons represent the contained speech particularly of women.

"I'm thinking about the suffragette movement and the present day and women's rights and how our voice is often suppressed or contained.

"I like when it's sunny in here. They look like they are glowing and when people are heard they glow and they're recognised."

The artists will be in residence daily until 3 October from 11:00 until 16:00.