“Apokaluptein: 16389067” artist Jesse Krimes dubbed his prison contraband—a project so off-limits that he had to secretly create it behind bars and smuggle it out.
The work came piecemeal as Krimes served a six-year sentence for cocaine possession at New Jersey’s FCI Fairton Federal Prison. Using hair gel and plastic spoons, he created a printing process to transfer images from DailyExpertNews clippings onto stolen sheets. He sneaked the prints to another location by stashing individual sheets in the lockers of sympathetic prison guards, who would send them surreptitiously.
“Even though he could get materials like canvases, he chose to use sheets because they were made by prison workers,” says Alysa Nahmias, director of “Art & Krimes by Krimes,” an MTV documentary about Krimes’s journey.
The film follows Krimes’ journey through his imprisonment and his return to society and the art world. Credit: Courtesy of MTV Documentaries
Stitched together only after the release of Krimes in 2014, the 39 sheets he produced during his time in prison now form a 9 by 4.5 meter art installation depicting a complex world, inspired by Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy’ , with multi-layered images of nude bodies dancing in the air and layered newspaper clippings superimposed over gray landscapes. As the title of the work suggests — “Apokaluptein” is Greek for “discover” and the origin of the word “apocalypse”, and 16389067 is the identification number of the Federal Bureau of Prisons of Krimes. with racial inequality, particularly in the legal system, he says he suffered there.
“It really struck me… going into the prison system, how many black and brown people I came across, you know, very similar stories to mine, very similar criminal backgrounds and those ultimately, in some cases ten years longer sentences,” he said. “Seeing that inside the prison walls really radicalized me.”
Krimes said he agreed to make the documentary to help change the narrative about people who are in prison.
“Because I think so often, or at least for a long time, any portrayal of people in prison by popular culture and media is negative,” he said.
Art in oppression
Featuring several animated sequences, “Art & Krimes by Krimes” follows the artist from his early days growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to his success after leaving prison.
“I wanted to show people what it’s like in his mind to be an artist and how that interacted with the prison conditions and the oppression there,” Nahimas said.
The documentary opens with an animation of Krimes making cardboard sculptures as a child in his grandfather’s shop, directly below the apartment where the artist was raised by his mother. His lifelong love of transforming materials led to a desire to go to art school. But shortly after graduating from Millersville University with a bachelor’s degree in studio art, Krimes was arrested on drug charges at age 24 and sent to prison.
“When I went in there I was terrified. I walked into the cafeteria…everyone was separated. Within the first few weeks there was a huge war that almost broke out between the whites and the blacks. The boys gave me shafts; I took them but I threw them away… I would never stab someone, that would get me a life sentence,” Krimes said in the documentary.
The film follows Krimes’ journey during his incarceration – improving his drawing skills through constant sketching, collaborating with other incarcerated artists and secretly sending his art – and his return to society and the art world. Immediately after his release, Krimes got a job with the restorative justice program in Philadelphia, painting murals in his spare time, and negotiated with his parole officer to get permission to exhibit in Paris.
Nahmias’ goal was not only to overturn negative stereotypes of incarcerated people, but also to question the racial disparities and discrimination artists face based on their skin color, both inside and outside prison and in the art world .
Krimes said he felt those differences acutely. “I was often the only white person and the only artist formerly in prison who participated in many exhibitions around the country that dealt with themes of mass incarceration,” he said. “I know the kind of genius and incredible creativity that many of my black friends create … behind prison walls.”
The stories and voices of some of Krimes’s friends and fellow ex-convicts, including Craig Robertson, Gilberto Rivera and Jared “O” Owens, also appear in documentaries, which illustrate the difficult paths of those with criminal records striving for success. to become artists – and their triumphs too.
“Art & Krimes by Krimes” is now streaming on Paramount+.
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