The Movement Won by Charmaine Pfender and Devon Cohen
Medium: Collage
Size: unframed, 9″x7″ oval
Artist statement: This piece is a collaboration between Charmaine Pfender and Devon Cohen. Charmaine and Devon are friends across the walls; Charmaine is currently serving a life sentence at SCI Cambridge Springs and Devon lives in Ambridge PA. Charmaine envisioned this piece, and Devon created the physical collage. In thinking about the theme “Picture a Free World,” Charmaine imagined a scene in which the movement had won: a dilapidated and abandoned prison entrance is flanked by protest signs which are no longer needed. Three figures move away down the road leaving the prison, from the gray lifeless prison toward beautiful flower-filled hills under a blue sky. Charmaine shared that part of her inspiration is knowing that none of us are free until all of us are free, and that our work is not complete until every person can be freed from prison.
Image description: A collage cut from photos from nature. In the foreground, the scene is grayish and drab. A broken and bent chain link fence and some barbed wire go across a road that winds off into the distance. There is a gray sign on the left behind the fence that reads “Department of Corrections” in cut out letters. On the other side of the road there are three signs with bright backgrounds in green, pink and purple which read “Free Our People,” “End Death by Incarceration,” and “A New World Is Coming,” also in cut out letters. Down the road there are three somewhat abstract human figures, cut out of images of a flower, water, and leaves. The figures appear to be traveling down the road away from the fence. The first figure is walking, the second is traveling in a wheelchair, and the third is walking and pushing the wheelchair. As the image goes into the background, it becomes more bright, going from the gray foreground to a green mossy mid ground, and the distance is portrayed with hills covered in pink and yellow wildflowers. There is a blue sky above, with a white and yellow sun and three flying birds.