Coinciding with National Reconciliation Week with a program of events celebrating the strength and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, Confined 13 will be on display at the Glen Eira Town Hall Gallery from the 5th of May to the 5th of June.
Presented by The Torch, Confined is an annual exhibition of artworks from Indigenous artists currently in or recently released from prisons in Victoria as part of The Torch’s Indigenous Arts in Prisons and Community Program.
Gamilaroi man Sean Miller is Indigenous coordinator and arts officer at The Torch who has been with the program since 2012, first as an inmate now as a mentor and project coordinator.
In a conversation with NITV Radio Sean Miller revealed how he was caught in the system then managed to turn his life around successfully thanks to Arts in Prisons and Community Program.
Sean has now turned his art practice into a job guiding other inmates or former inmates through the same program that totally transformed his life.
“It is an avenue for change. It gives the artists a chance. Not only do they learn more about their culture while in prison but there is also self-confidence that’s built. We give them the guidance and the direction they need to make that change in their life. It is a great program, and it has been very successful with a lot of our artists,” Sean Miller says.
He also described the wide range of objects exhibited including paintings and three-dimensional artworks; carved wooden sculptures, a painted surfboard, woven baskets, bush dyed silk scarves, decorative ceramic homewares, a painted pair of boxing gloves, as well as an array of shields, boomerangs, clapsticks and painted yidaki's.
All works will be available for purchase from the gallery and online with 100% of the proceedings going to the artists or their families.
For participants, the creation and sale of their artworks is part of a rehabilitation process that helps build confidence, social capital, economic stability and pathways to reconnect with the community.
Working with Melbourne City Council’s Aboriginal Melbourne, The Torch has recently launched a mural program where in-community participants are able to learn and develop new skills and earn income while working on public murals under the guidance of The Torch staff and professional mentors.
Sean Miller coordinates The Torch’s public mural program and describes it as not only a new avenue for cultural expression but also a new opportunity for participants.
“When they are out, we help them with their art practice. We are currently going into projects like murals in community and that has been a big help too. Some of our artists have now taken up new art practice with murals as well. As you know, murals are popping up around the community everywhere these days and the Torch is a big part of that.”
To date, Sean Miller said, murals have been completed for the Melbourne Assessment Prison, Yarra Valley Water, the City of Melbourne, and the Reece Group head office in Cremorne.
Two more murals will be painted shortly at the Melbourne Eye and Ear Hospital and the Caulfield campus of Monash University.
