ARTS . Re-View

Far Eastern State

Susan Hagen's sculptures recreate scenes from a penitentiary's past.


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Published: May 16, 2007

The doors in Eastern State Penitentiary's Cellblock Seven (1835) remind me of the low doors to a traditional Japanese tea house. Both humble all who enter. Scaling green paint and rusted metal in ESP now have a nostalgic sabi/wabi aura, but they were spit-and-polish pristine during the working life of the building (1829-1971). Currently seven of those doors frame miniature scenes from the prison's past, each meticulously carved and constructed with historic accuracy by sculptor (and former City Paper critic) Susan Hagen. Her husband, architect Tom Buck, built some of the furniture, even turning tiny table legs.

The idealistic planners of ESP imagined prisoners would find penitence in solitary confinement with nothing but a Bible and hard work for comfort. They did not imagine the psychological torture they would inflict.

The penitentiary is a sad, scary and beautiful place. Now open to visitors, ESP's program of site-specific art presents intriguing perspectives on human incarceration. Hagen's will ultimately include 10 vignettes. The earliest (1829), already on view, depicts a prisoner whose hood-shrouded head inescapably suggests Abu Ghraib.

Obliquely lighted and all-white, their odd stillness deflects notions of miniatures as cute or charming. Small scale and bleached-out color suggest remoteness in memory and understanding. Recently installed, The Quilting Party depicts a forbidden festivity. Hagen's research revealed this facetiously titled revelry held in 1834 in the prison warden's residence, with strong drink, dancing and the mingling of male and female prisoners. The warden mysteriously eluded punishment; his underlings were not so lucky.

Three scenes will be added over the summer. Hagen anticipates carving the rapt faces of prisoners watching television in the 1960s. Program director Sean Kelley and another staff member have agreed to model.

"[The scenes] are probably not 100 percent historically accurate. I have to make some guesses," Hagen acknowledges. She thought long and hard about whether to include oysters in the Quilting Party buffet and finally decided that oysters were so popular in Philadelphia back then that they were most likely on the menu.

On your summer activities menu, do highlight an entrÃƒÂ©e to Eastern State and Hagen's thoughtful visions of its past.

(r_rice@citypaper.net)

Susan Hagen: Recollection Tableaux, through the summer, Eastern State Penitentiary, 22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue, 215-236-3300