Avery is a suminagashi (“floating ink”) painting, which is a traditional form of Japanese ink marbling. Though small in size, Avery stands for something much larger. Created at the Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institute, a medium security mens prison in North Carolina, USA, Avery was created as a demonstration during an art workshop that taught inmates technical artistry skills. With an atypically high prison population, the US in known for it’s inhumane prison conditions that facilitate profit rather than personal reform or growth. Avery served to show inmates a form of creative expression that can help relieve anxieties and inspire and develop artistic passion within a group of people who’ve been incarcerated and beaten down to believe their value is less than others.
