DPRU hosts 'Voices from Death Row' art exhibition

From 7-8th May, the Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU) and the Death Penalty Project (DPP) held a temporary art exhibition titled 'Voices from Death Row: Art as a Form of Expression', bringing together works of art created by people on death row around the world, as well as by international artists and exonerees.

The exhibition was hosted in the Oakeshott Room at Lincoln College, and included paintings, drawings, poetry, clothing and music - all created in the most challenging of circumstances.

Curated by DPhil students Lucrezia Rizzelli and Amelia Inglis, the intention of the exhibition was to highlight the transformative power of art as a tool for reflection and self-exploration, as well as for raising awareness of the inhumanity and injustice of capital punishment regimes the world over.

An official opening event was held at the college on Saturday 6th May, featuring an evening of guest speakers and discussion of the themes of the exhibition. The speakers were Professor Carolyn Hoyle, Director of the DPRU; Parvais Jabbar, Co-Director of the DPP; Peter Ouko, death row exoneree from Kenya and founder of the charity Crime Si Poa; and Toshi Kazami, a professional photographer who presented his series of images of prisons and inmates from death row.

On 2 May, Lucrezia Rizzelli and Toshi Kazami were interviewed about the exhibition on BBC Radio Oxford. This interview is available via BBC Sounds (at 1:13:35) here. The exhibition was also reviewed by the Oxford Student and Oxford Blue publications. For queries about the exhibition, please contact: dpru@crim.ox.ac.uk