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Closer to Home
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 2020
Artist: Lois Innes
Dimensions:
297 × 420 mm (29.7 × 42 cm)
Medium: GSM paper, bound
Object number: MISC.2020.117.CC
DescriptionGraphic novel.
‘Closer to Home’ – an archicomic graphic story - challenges the unethical prison and criminal justice system in the UK, focusing on HMP Brixton as a case study. It’s a story - or series of stories - which explore the idea of a prison-free society, setting out an alternative future for individuals that are disproportionately affected by the cycle of crime and incarceration in this country.
Architecturally, it proposes a series of interventions that provide greater social infrastructure to disadvantaged neighbourhoods, such as the provision of youth centres, community recreational facilities and assisted housing. The focus is on integrating offenders back into their communities, as well as exploring the ways in which architecture and policy can reduce the culture of crime at the root of the problem.
The medium of the graphic novel was employed due to the rich crossovers between architecture and comic representation: both tell stories about cities, buildings, and people, with the values of these imagined societies articulated through that interplay. As there’s no real existing context for a prison-free society, the project seeks to strike a balance between fantastical and plausible, telling a story of a possible future that’s not yet fully situated in our collective mind’s eye.
The project has been developed from a perspective of a young, female black architect living in London. Personal insights and research –bought into international focus by the current context of the Black Lives Matter movement – have motivated and informed the work. The project ultimately advocates for the abolition of prisons, in favour of strengthening community-based forms of social infrastructure.
‘Closer to Home’ – an archicomic graphic story - challenges the unethical prison and criminal justice system in the UK, focusing on HMP Brixton as a case study. It’s a story - or series of stories - which explore the idea of a prison-free society, setting out an alternative future for individuals that are disproportionately affected by the cycle of crime and incarceration in this country.
Architecturally, it proposes a series of interventions that provide greater social infrastructure to disadvantaged neighbourhoods, such as the provision of youth centres, community recreational facilities and assisted housing. The focus is on integrating offenders back into their communities, as well as exploring the ways in which architecture and policy can reduce the culture of crime at the root of the problem.
The medium of the graphic novel was employed due to the rich crossovers between architecture and comic representation: both tell stories about cities, buildings, and people, with the values of these imagined societies articulated through that interplay. As there’s no real existing context for a prison-free society, the project seeks to strike a balance between fantastical and plausible, telling a story of a possible future that’s not yet fully situated in our collective mind’s eye.
The project has been developed from a perspective of a young, female black architect living in London. Personal insights and research –bought into international focus by the current context of the Black Lives Matter movement – have motivated and informed the work. The project ultimately advocates for the abolition of prisons, in favour of strengthening community-based forms of social infrastructure.