“Where the great artist moves forward, every step is an adventure, an extreme risk. In that risk, however, and only there, lies the freedom of art.” Albert Camus
The risk that artists take to realise their work comes in many forms. It can mean forging ahead on a project without a definite outcome, or tackling the realities of an uncertain career. In other circumstances it can mean facing more concrete dangers, such as placing oneself in physical peril, or, in the case of these artists, risking imprisonment for their art.
Mormon landscape artist LeConte Stewart said that art exists to say the unsayable, and it’s long been acknowledged that one of its functions is to disrupt prevailing cultural and aesthetic norms. But when faced with state power, or a proscriptive society, this can mean artists come easily into contact with the law, intentionally or otherwise. Inevitably, these are asymmetric conflicts; an individual or small group against powerful institutions, and where we see artists fighting for what they believe in. That’s what Japanese sculptor Megumi Igarashi called “a single lonely effort”.
All the artists in these pages ahead have been arrested for their work. Some are still either incarcerated, awaiting trial or finally free to practise express themselves.