This body of work below was produced in 1995 at Sing Sing prison in
 response to the dehumanizing nature of body cavity searches.
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INTENT OF THE ARTIST: To give the general public a view 
of the dehumanizing nature of  the Body Cavity Searches
 
Materials used:
Department of Corrections Directive  #4910, paper, glue, magic markers (also considered contraband)
 
Description of event that  lead to creation of 
the work.
After returning from a visit with his mother Anthony Papa was subjected to a routine  strip search. However on that day a sadistic guard was assigned
 to search him.  In a small booth, with no door, the guard ordered  Papa to take off his clothing and assume the standard search position.  The guard ordered 
Papa to go through the routine of raising his arms, opening his mouth and  then bending over to inspect his anal cavity for contraband. No contraband was
found. Not satisfied with his search the guard asked Papa to spread his ass cheeks again. No contraband was found.  The guard  then asked Papa for the
 third consecutive time to spread his ass cheeks. 
 
Enough was enough Papa thought, he asked the guard what he was looking for.   The guard gave no response and instead just laughed. Papa  became
 outraged of the dehumanizing treatment he had experienced.  He asked the guard to call his superior supervisor.   The guard laughed again and told him
 to get dressed and leave or he would lock him up.   Totally dehumanized Papa went to the law library to write a complaint against the guard. 
While researching  the issue Papa discovered 20 pages of directives issued by the New York State Department of Corrections  on how guards should search the body cavities of prisoners.  Papa was disgusted  at the dehumanizing procedures  and decided to paint about this dehumanizing experience.  He created automatic paintings and glued parts of the directives to them. The six pieces of work were then confiscated by the administration when Papa tried to send them out to the free world.  He was charged with smuggling out Department of Corrections directives, although no such rules existed against displaying them because they were considered public documents.
 
The  prison administration gave Papa a choice, either the policy directives be removed or  the paintings would be destroyed. The administration did not
 want thefree world to view this dehumanizing procedure.  Papa  was forced to strip the directives from  his art work.  Feeling defeated by the incident
 and enforcing  the feeling  that the prison wanted total control  his life, even his creative process.
 
Despite the years of behavior modification techniques that the  prison subjected  him to, his creative impulse took control and forced Papa to speak
 out against this dehumanizing experience.  He recreated the cut up directives and then made diagrams of each painting and smuggled them along out through 
the mail.   Despite the risk of losing his pending quest for executive clemency Papa took the chance in order to try and tell the outside world of  the 
dehumanizing experience of body cavity searches.
 
A year later Papa 's  wish came true.  He was granted clemency and upon his release he had an art  exhibit in a NYC gallery.   
 He reassembled the contraband series  and it was displayed at  the Outsider Gallery.    The work was then featured in the NY Times where
 the free world learned of body cavity searches!  
 
 
NY Times

Tony Papa's Creative Block

Published: July 6, 1997
This incident is also featured in Papa’s book 15 to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom  
 
 
 (PDF - to copy the directives Mr. Papa used in the painting Click Here) 
 
 
 
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The Art
 
Body Cavity Search
 
 
 
 
Forced Strip Search
 
 
 
Radiological Body Search

 

 

 

 

Mouth Search

 

 

 

 

Explosive Rules

 

 

 

Shit Assault

 

Double click on photos of DOC Directives to see enlarged version