The Cage Project (New York, USA, 2015)
Lech Szporer, The Cage Project: Standing In Street (Polaroid), 2015, New York, USA, photographic print (limited edition)
The Cage Project (New York, USA, 2015)
Prison abolitionist, artist, and director at Tactical Aesthetics, Lech Szporer, stages post-criminal satire by caging himself outside the Manhattan Detention Complex, otherwise known as "The Tombs", on Sunday, October 25th, 2015, marking the day the first penitentiary was established in the United States.
Handcuffed and sealed in a freestanding steel cage, and placed by a team in the middle of the active vehicular intersection of Center and White St., Lech Szporer kept silent throughout the entire performance, which lasted through his ultimate 36 hour detainment.
Lech Szporer, The Cage Project: Standing In Street, 2015, New York, USA, photographic print (limited edition)
Lech Szporer, The Cage Project: Facing Cops, 2015, New York, USA, photographic print (limited edition)
“I am staging this disruption because the scandal of mass criminalization, incarceration, and neglect in America is horrific, inhumane, and an issue of grave urgency. We should abolish prison as the dominant mode of punishment and move toward a non-retributive, reconciliatory, restorative justice to address the issues prisons attempt to address but cannot.
By displacing the caged person from behind walls to the middle of the street, and by rendering what is too often invisible visible, I hope to add some emotional depth to the public discussion on prison reform, mental health, and race in America.”
Lech Szporer, The Cage Project: NYPD Cutting Cage (Polaroid), 2015, New York, USA, photographic print (limited edition)
Lech Szporer, The Cage Project Team Positions, New York, USA, 2015, pen and ink drawing
Lech Szporer, The Cage Project Escape Route, New York, USA, 2015, pen and ink map drawing
The Cage Project Drawings (New York, USA, 2015)
Below are a selection of drawings. Some drawings are initial unrealized ideas that were scrapped for being too dangerous. The Cage Project was also about transforming a vehicular intersection into a theatrical stage.
Lech Szporer, Bridge Cut 1, New York, USA, 2014, pen and ink drawing on print
Lech Szporer, Cage On Bridge, New York, USA, 2014, pen and ink drawing on print
Lech Szporer, Bridge Cut 2, New York, USA, 2014, pen and ink drawing on print
Lech Szporer, Cage In Street, New York, USA, 2014, pen and ink drawing on print
Lech Szporer, Cage Project Ivory Drawing #1, New York, USA, 2014, pen and ink drawing on ivory paper
Lech Szporer, Cage Project Ivory Drawing #2, New York, USA, 2014, pen and ink drawing on ivory paper
Lech Szporer, Cage Project Ivory Drawing #3, New York, USA, 2014, pen and ink collage on ivory paper
Lech Szporer, Cage Project Ivory Drawing #4, New York, USA, 2014, pen and ink collage on ivory paper
Acknowledgments: This project could not have been accomplished without the help of Mitch Van Dusen, Patrick Merentie, Andy Svedja, Ryan Brown, Marissa Blair, Isaac Zal, Kat Purcell, Susan Tipograph, Andrew Wingert, and a few more revolutionary warriors. I also want to thank videographer Oscar Bret and photographers Hannes Charen, Matthew Blair, Paloma Mele, and Lou Weinstein, and writer Julia Lourie for helping document the day of the intervention.