An “Ode to the Sea”
They all said one thing: “We want people to see us as humans.”
Erin Thompson had asked the artists at Guantanamo Bay what they wanted people to get out of their works of art. Initially, Thompson didn’t understand why the artists would ask for something so basic. For most of us, being seen as human is something we expect — something we take for granted. But for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, this is not the case.
Thompson, a professor of art crime at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, recently curated a free exhibit of art made by Guantanamo Bay detainees. Eight current and former Guantanamo Bay prisoners made the 36 pieces lining the walls of one of John Jay’s smallest art galleries. Of the eight prisoners, only one has been tried and charged with any crime. The exhibit, called “An Ode to the Sea,” sparked incredible controversy.
Shortly after the exhibit received significant media coverage, the Pentagon declared the art made by Guantanamo Bay detainees as government property. Therefore, all art left in prisoners’ cells after their release is burned. This declaration permits guards to destroy any art they deem as “excess.” After the exhibit opened, the U.S. government realized that these artworks revealed the humanity of the detainees who made them — something that the authorities want to protect against at all costs.
For some, the exhibit, and the subsequent Pentagon policy on art, resurfaced conversations about the mistreatment of Guantanamo prisoners. Others, however, found the humanization of suspected terrorists an issue. Thompson received a variety of questions after the exhibit’s opening some praised her work while others condemned it.
“People asked questions like does displaying this art glorify terrorism? Does it help prevent terrorism by allowing people to understand the minds of suspected terrorists? Does it insult the victims of the 9/11 attack or try to help them receive justice by renewing pressure to try and charge detainees? Is humanization of the artists evil or good?” Thompson said.
The paintings, all of which are stamped with the words “approved by U.S. forces,” mostly depict water and the sea. In her talk organized by the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project on February 28, Thompson said she was initially confused by the commonality of water in the paintings.
“I had expected protest art, art full of pain, art about Guantanamo in an obvious way and what I saw was painting after painting involving water,” said Thompson.
When Thompson asked the detainees about the art through their lawyers, she received simple and unrevealing answers, but the main thread revolved around a desire for visibility and recognition that they are human too.
Still, this answer did little to explain the theme of water in almost every piece of art — from paintings of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset over still water to a sculpture of a boat made of cardboard, old t-shirts, and bottle caps. So Thompson asked again, this time contacting one of the artists who had been released, who revealed that the cells in Guantanamo Bay are next to the sea.
Guantanamo prisoners can hear the waves and smell the salt water but cannot see it; tarps block their view of the vast and open sea. However, in 2013, guards removed the tarps for a few days due to threats of an approaching hurricane. For the first time, the detainees could actually see the water. After that, when guards replaced the tarps, the detainees began substituting artistic depictions of water for the real thing.
Much of why the U.S. has been able to unabashedly commit so many human rights violations in Guantanamo Bay is because they have successfully framed detainees asmonsters — as somehow subhuman and therefore undeserving of the respect that we ourselves expect. Men at Guantanamo frequently suffer torture and indefinite detainment without trial. Others have been released after years of imprisonment, after being arrested for no real reason. Cases of mistaken identities, sale of people to American authorities, the list of injustices continues. While attention and activism surrounding the human rights violations at Guantanamo exists, U.S. authorities have continued to restrict the basic human rights of prisoners there, in a manner more severe than their restrictions of American prisoners’ rights, by representing Guantanamo detainees as less than human out to the American public.
However, the detainees’ art strives to change this perception.
“Water serves as the perfect disguise. Its winds and waves and rocks represent the all-too human emotions of the artist without ever making them visible to the senses,” Thompson said.
Initially, the U.S. authorities missed the underlying objective, so, they stamped the artwork with approval and allowed presentation the public. However, once the exhibit revealed this message, authorities attempted to stop its proliferation by taking over ownership of art made by detainees.
For Thompson, working on this exhibit was wholly different from her other work. When she was younger she didn’t think she had the skills that she deemed necessary to be an activist. In college, she wrote for a poetry magazine and went on to receive a PhD in classical art; in law school, she specialized in international law surrounding the looting and smuggling of antiquities.
“Working on the exhibit meant that I met so many people using so many different skills to fight the injustice they see around them, I realized I too have the responsibility to use my own skills — not the ones I wish I had but they ones I actually have — to make the world a more just place,” Thompson said.
The Yale Undergraduate Prison Project, the student-led organization that brought Erin Thompson in to speak, does criminal justice and prison reform advocacy and runs a mentorship program at a nearby men’s prison.
