Amy Elkins
Black is the Day, Black is the Night Concrete Study #1, 2011 San Quentin Script, 2010 Black is the Day, Black is the Night Poem Dedication Detail taken from 13/32 (Not the Man I Once Was) What is it the remains when one is away? 13/32 (Not the Man I Once Was) Living in the land of the Lost poem excerpt Elsewhere #7 7 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (forest) 9 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (forest) 13 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (forest) Special Mailing Procedure "Serving time on the River" game spinner "67" Commissary bought greeting cards (L: sent from death row. R: sent from solitary) General Inmate Correspondence, Texas The Real May Never Equal the Imagined 26/44 (Not the Man I Once Was) Elsewhere #1 4 Years Out of a Deathrow Sentence (ocean) 22 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (ocean) 26 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (ocean) 22 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (ocean) (Detail) Pencil Sketch Offender Correspondence stamp Human Destiny from the work in progress 'Fictional Library' Correspondence North Bay, CA Food Tray Black is the Day, Black is the Night 14/38 (Not the Man I Once Was) Elsewhere #2 5 Years Out of a Death Row Sentence (dying wish - Retama tree) 12 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (Dying Wish Retama Tree) 14 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (Dying Wish Retama Tree) Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit stamp "Yeah I remember the day I landed myself a life sentence.. " Handmade Jump Rope (torn and braided bed sheet) L) Sketch of a death row cell interior. R) Handmade greeting card Las Vegas, NV No Longer Paralyzed by Volts of Emotion 13/32 (Not the Man I Once Was) Elsewhere #4 3 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (river) 11 Years out of a Deathrow Sentence (river) 13 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (river) Inspection stamps Postcard from Solitary Peace. Joy. Love. (Christmas card from deathrow) Fictional Bookshelf #3 (found objects on gray backdrop) Ely State Prison stamp Like a beast among beasts I go! Am I a beast? Death Row Tally Sheet "As each hour ticked away.." 15/30 (Not the Man I Once Was) Elsewhere #3 8 Years out of a Life Sentence (desert) 10 Years out of a Life Sentence (desert) 15 Years out of a Life Sentence (desert) Diego Rivera (paper, scotch tape, dirt on painted wall) First Letter from death row September 22, 2009 6:22 p.m. CDT. Grenada, MS Whole and Complete, Now and Forever 19/32 (Not the Man I Once Was) Waves (video still) Elsewhere #5 Living a life absent of light poem excerpt 3 Years out of a Life Sentence/4 Years out of a Life Sentence 14 Years out of a Life Sentence/ 19 Years out of a Life Sentence 19 Years out of a Life Sentence (Detail) "Dream On" / "In Search Of" Atlanta, GA Native drawing Elsewhere #6 Detail taken from 14/38 (Not the Man I Once Was) Los Angeles Times / The New York Times sent from Solitary Selection of letters in stack Blunders of Adolescence and One's Complexities (1) Blunders of Adolescence and One's Complexities (2) Concrete Study #2
Black is the Day, Black is the Night



(2009- ongoing)

Carnegie Art Museum, CA (Dec 12, 2009)
Bushwick Open Studios (June 4-6, 2010)
Lightworks Residency Award (2011)
Cruel & Unusual: Prison Photography, Holland (2012)

Black is the Day, Black is the Night explores identity using concepts of time, accumulation, memory and distance through personal correspondence with men serving life and deathrow sentences in some of the most maximum security prisons in the U.S., all of which had served between 13-26 years at point of contact.

Over the past year I have constructed images using formulas specific to each inmate’s shared story, age and years incarcerated; where the ratio of years spent in prison to years alive determines the level of image loss or layer accumulation. Through these formulas their portraits become more unrecognizable and their memories (sky, ocean, etc) become more muddled, regurgitated and fictional with the endless passing years of their life or deathrow sentence. Stripped of personal context and placed in solitary cells, their sense of identity, memory and time can’t help but mutate.

While some pieces were created using these formulas, as well as letter excerpts, Google maps and appropriated images- other pieces were reconstructed or sought out online using descriptions in letters of items either handmade by the inmate or otherwise allowed in cells (homemade jump rope, fictional bookshelf, food tray).

This project explores ideas of identity, but is also meant to bring light and raise questions about our nations prison systems and use of capitol punishment. I remain in touch with all of my pen pals to this day, minus one whose execution went through in September 2009.



"I have asked myself if I have rather become so used to the company of my solitude that I no longer feel the passing of years and instead am grateful to have life pass with my every moment of existence as if the years were simply minutes."


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