Edmund Clark at HMP Grendon
“Edmund Clark is nearing the end of his three-year residency at the UK’s only therapeutic prison, HMP Grendon. As well as assembling his own body of work about the institution, the people it holds and the structures it represents, Clark assists the prisoners themselves as they develop their own artistic practices and, occasionally, feature in his. He is keen to stress that this aspect of his role does not constitute ‘art therapy’ – something the prisoners participate in outside of Clark’s involvement, and heavy with its own history. While people have been finding catharsis in creation since human beings first scratched on cave walls, art therapy as a distinct discipline emerged in the 1940s. Developed out of psychoanalysis, art therapy began in mental health institutions and has since spread into hospitals, private practices and correctional institutions. Some schools of thought have stayed close to their psychoanalytic roots, regarding the work produced by patients as a kind of visual speech to be investigated, while others simply believe in the restorative and relaxatory properties of drawing, painting or sculpting. Call it art therapy or just ‘art’; there is plenty of evidence to suggest that these practices can be transformational for all kinds of people, including prisoners. In fact, HMP Grendon is the only UK prison to have proven to reduce reoffending rates. “