Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I draw from experiences with two fiber arts programs in men's prisons in Oregon and Indiana to consider ethnography alongside and in dialogue with the artists, examining art as the potentiality of materials to transform experiences, perceptions, and knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

This paper situates two case studies of fiber arts programs in men's prisons in the US as both art and ethnography. I will draw from a collaborative exhibit created in 2011 with a crochet club at an Oregon penitentiary, in addition to my involvement as a volunteer and researcher in a knitting circle in an Indiana prison from 2012-2017. In both groups, the men who participated held varying levels of skill and artistry; their experiences of creativity and motivations to participate in the groups diverged as well, as reflected in their material objects and narratives. While the men made items to donate to individuals in need of warm clothing and comfort, the pieces they created communicated meanings beyond their objects' functions; skill, aesthetics, and meaning-making intersected in a knitted hat or a crocheted blanket.

I draw from Mikhail Bakhtin's theorization on the polyphonic utterance to consider the fiber art created by the incarcerated artists as nodes of dialogue. As such, the knitted and crocheted objects were activated and circulated through inside and outside audiences. As the men transformed materials into functional objects, they created art charged with potentialities to transform the men's daily environment; to transform their pasts; to transform their family and community relationships; and to transform their identities, including their own interpretations of masculinity. On display and in use, the objects gave the men access to present their narratives to outside worlds, and altered my own ideas of ethnography and collaboration.