Janice Aitken introduces her video projection at Dundee’s Visual Research Centre and Hugh Collins explores the influence of HM Prisons’ Special Unit on himself and his work in an edition of Channel 6 Broadcasting’s ‘Art in Scotland’.

In the first part of the programme Dave Rushton asks Janice Aitken why video has become such an important art form for artists these days. She says many artists are using video as part of a conceptual piece, for them the concept is as important as the video itself, but for her the video itself is the most important part of her work. Her current piece, however, is very site-specific, it is projected onto a plain curved wall of the Visual Research Centre, which gave the inspiration for the work.

The video, produced at the School of Television and Imaging of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, was shot largely in the print studio of the Visual Research Centre, Aitken’s interview is intercut with shots of the night time projection in the courtyard of the VRC and is followed by a direct copy the video itself.

The second part of the programme is a fascinating insight into the relationship between the arts and the prison service.

When Zin Craig of the Sable Gallery approached the Prisons Art Education Department to mount an exhibition of prisoner’s work she initially received a very positive response. She was put in touch with a number of prisoners and established correspondence with them, they now had a reason to create work and things moved quickly towards the proposed exhibition. Suddenly she received a letter from the Scottish Prisons Service saying that her visiting rights had been cancelled and that the prisoners would no longer be participating. After she protested she was told that this was because the gallery was a commercial operation and would be making money from the prisoners work.

Glaswegian Hugh Collins sentenced to life imprisonment in 1977 for a murder in a Glasgow bar speaks to the camera in front of the exhibition ‘Unchain My Art’ at the Sable Gallery, and we see works from Katherine Lubar’s provocative and thought provoking exhibition of paintings inspired by life behind bars as Hugh Collins tells his own fascinating story and gives his views on crime, punishment, rehabilitation of offenders and art therapy. He talks about the contradictory prison rules about the exhibition and sale of prisoners’ work.

Clearly convinced of the power of art therapy in a prison environment he says it certainly worked for him: “Televisions don’t rehabilitate people, art therapy does”. This video recording lasts 30 minutes and 25 seconds.