In the fall of 2024 the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights reached out to us at Walls Turned Sideways with the idea to commission formerly incarcerated artists who had experiences with solitary confinement to make animation shorts for a campaign to end the use of solitary confinement. It’s been well documented that time in solitary causes long term harms to people who are locked away. The National Alliance on Mental Health says “Those kept in solitary are often fed through a slot in their door, denied human touch, denied access to critical services or lifesaving medical care and ultimately trapped in a cell or “box” often without any knowledge of when their isolation will end.” These are just some of the experiences the artists in this project experienced. In “These Walls Do Talk” you will see and hear the impacts of solitary confinement told by people who have experienced it.
These animations will be used in a larger campaign to pass the Nelson Mandela Act. This project became an important way for formerly incarcerated artists to engage in a supportive environment with other artists to process the pain of solitary confinement and advocate for the many people they left behind when they came home.
A big thank you to the contributing artists, Alfred Higareda, Benny Lopez, Natalia Maciorowska, Madeline Mendoza, and Pablo Mendoza, Da Shuang Wu, Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Walls Turned Sideways.