in/finite space
20”x20”
Cyanotypes on fabric
“An abolitionist approach that seeks to answer questions such as these would require us to imagine a constellation of alternative strategies and institutions, with the ultimate aim of removing the prison from the social and ideological landscapes of our society.” Angela Y. Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?, p. 107
Abolition is a visionary worldview that demands justice and liberation for every person. It asks us to reflect more deeply, suspend our confusion around what will happen after abolition, challenge our fundamental white supremacy culture thoughts, see liberation not as a possibility but as the future, and wants us to understand that abolition will take community accountability and investment to overthrow white supremacy.
The idea that every person deserves community and accountability requires that we are open to holding both ourselves and other people to this. It requires humility and courage. It demands that we do not cancel people and instead call them in; so that in turn we can see every part of our lives as places of abolition from systems that are built to tear us all down.
Abolition is directly connected to environmental ecologies and the current state of the planet. The sky is an infinite space for liberatory future.
There is no way to conceive of the sick body, the trans body, the body that defies borders, the racialized body, without understanding that these states of being, exist in direct opposition to the constructed environment and are the bodies most urgently impacted by the environmental collapse. We use the same extractive practices to pillage the Earth for resources that we use to take emotional resources (and, in many cases, life itself) away from people of color, queer people, immigrants, and women. In both cases, we are unconcerned with sustainability and the offering of any system of replenishment.
Understanding the prison industrial complex and the ways it has been formed allows me to conceptualize the utopic space needed to envision a place where our bodies will no longer be erased, which I am proposing is in the sky.