'Podlife 2' by Sean Bw Parker
Podlife is a series of paintings done at Leyhill open prison from its two rows of 'pods', which are fibreglass huts as found as offices on building sites. These were brought in as emergency accommodation during the Covid lockdown, but quickly became the 'aspire to' place to be moved to, which was then used as a reward for good behaviour.
Noisy neighbours are one of the main causes of prison violence, and the scope for that is enormous with only a prefab wall between the residents. Thus any absence of complaints about noise would be seen as a positive by staff, and the strip became something of a 'gated community' on the perimeters of the prison.
It is striking how the traditional bricks and mortar of the established prison, not that old, became the 'second level' place to aspire to stay, while the new 'pod living' strip became the des-res. They did have their own showers however, which in the UK prison estate is as close to manna from heaven as anything.
To see more of Sean Bw Parker's artworks go to: https://www.saatchiart.com/en-gb/seanbwparker
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