Khairul Ismail’s choice of subject matter and setting lends a psychological slant to this series. The visual works that he has documented reveal an ongoing process of inner negotiations, of dealing with power struggles, fear towards appropriation, desire for acceptance and repentance, within each prison inmate. Collectively, the visual works suggest the existence of a communal struggle of the inmates against a dogmatic power. This pressure of the panoptical power on the inmates has inevitably turned the visual structure in Pudu Jail into an artifact, which represents the apparatus of power struggle and repression.
In capturing these images, Ismail hopes to provide his audience with fresh insights into understanding the drive and influences behind and beyond the ‘Art’ on the walls of Pudu Jail.