food related crime

micheal stole a cow
james stole a cow
timothy stole a cow

martin a stole a cow

thomas stole a cow

james and timothy stole turnips

george stole apples

patrick stole a sheep

escaping from prison with a spoon

when talking to a tour guide at Freemantle prison he told me of a child on one of his tours who when asked how to escape form the prison suggested escaping by using a spoon to lift up the floor boards and then to dig their way out.. when it was suggested that it would be hard to keep the sand from falling in on the dug tunnel the girl suggested using porridge from the prison meals to line the tunnel..

the hopelessness of escape / liberty

little chance of convicts returning to county of origin

when this you see remember me until i gain my liberty
inscription on a convict love token

a spoon with holes in it

a lacy spoon

irish famine hunger related crime

ideas

a crochet patterned spoon ? a lacy spoon refererencing crochet of ireland

using rudimentary tools at hand .. making a convict love token

use the same technique with a spoon .. piercing surface

• contemporary safety cutlery
• airline cutlery
• plastic cutlery

''Once, skeletons were locked in the closet. No longer, as we dig deeper for the roots of our family trees, writes Steve Meacham. More than 40 years ago, says Heather Garnsey, the sober staff who worked behind the counters of the Society of Australian Genealogists felt they had to protect innocents from the "C" word.
If someone came in researching their family tree and asked to see the all-important 1828 census, they wouldn't be allowed to look themselves. A member of staff would do it for them, fearing the worst. "If it was found that they had convict origins, they'd be told, 'No, there wasn't anything of interest for you'. [The researchers] knew that the person would not be happy to have convict ancestry. They felt they had to mask the truth." The convict stain was too awful to admit.
And now? Garnsey, executive officer of Australia's premier genealogical body, laughs. "Now it's a badge of honour to collect as many convicts in your family tree as possible - even if you wouldn't have wanted to meet any of them today."



http://eogn.typepad.com/othernews/2005/07/the_dead_person.html











make convict badges..

• wear your own convict as a badge of honour

• claim a convict..

• match the convict to the crime

• choose the trade and the crime

• what crime would you admit to in your family ?

stealing turnips, pickpocketing, murder,rape, abusing a child, bestiality?

gathering trades and crimes from the freemantle prison database i have been thinking of making works which match the trade with the crime.

how would a chairmaker break into a house ? how would a farmer or a paperbag maker forge coins?


match the trade with the crime..


















a farmer posessing coin moulds




a carpenter stealing apples