The House That Herman Built, 2006Jackie Sumell/Herman Wallace

For 34 years Herman Wallace has been in solitary confinement in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola (USA). Solitary confinement, or closed cell restriction at Angola consists of a minimum 23 hours a day in a 6 foot by 9-foot cell (2 meter x 3 meter), 7 days a week. Jackie Sumell was introduced to Herman through the activist and organizing efforts of Robert King. King spent 29 years in solitary confinement at Angola and was originally accused of the same crime as Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox. Collectively, as Black Panthers and effective organisers in one of the most notorious prisons in the US, they became known as the Angola 3. After serving 31 years of wrongful imprisonment (29 in solitary confinement) Robert King was released and began organizing on behalf of his comrades.

In November of 2002, after months of correspondence, Sumell asked Herman Wallace a very simple question, “What kind of house does a man who lives in a 6-foot by 9-foot cell for over 30 years dream of?” The answer to this question resulted in an extraordinary four-year exchange. Through extensive letter writing, occasional phone calls, and visits to the prison, Jackie has been giving voice to Herman’s imagination. The project manifested several different modalities including, over 300 letters, dozens of drawings, a 50:1 scale balsa wood model, a fly-through video of a CAD model with an audio tour (written by Herman) read by Robert King, a reproduction of Herman’s cell built from his drawings, and most recently, a 130 page color book documenting the correspondence. For those of us looking in, it documents the resilience of the imagination and brings into fruition a viable dream from within a nightmare. This is The House That Herman Built.

(Top) Still from CAD Video, 2006 (Right) Scan from letter, July/30/2004.

(Right) Scan from letter, July/21/2006 from which Jackie built the 1:1 model of Herman’s cell for the exhibition, The House That Herman Built, Akademie Schloss Solitude, 2006.

(Top) Scan from letter, October/26/2003.(Left above) Drawing from CAD video production, 2003.(Left below) Balsa wood model 1, 2002.

(Top) Still from video, Kitchen 2006.(Left top) Still from video, Hobby Shop, 2006.(Left middle)Still from video, Pantry, 2006.(Left bottom) Still from video, Conference Room, 2006.(Right) Floorplan from fly-though CAD model, 2005.

Images from the exhibition, The House That Herman Built, Akademie Schloss Solitude, 2006.(top) Installation documentation, photo: Hagen Betzweiser. (below clockwise from top left) opening one, opening two, inside wooden cell reproduction, outside installation space