BRIAN VANDEPUTTE
Multi-disciplinary and media-agnostic creative problem-solver who thinks you’re great.Behind Bars → Hand Soap
According to The Atlantic, the safest place for an inmate to hide a phone is in their rectum. To keep the orifice sized and supple, inmates have been known to tuck a bar of soap away as a placeholder. This piece engages that unsettling intersection of survival, surveillance, and bodily autonomy within the carceral system.
I created soap molds in the shape of burner phones—objects symbolizing both connection and contraband—and produced bars that were then sold to support the Marshall Project, a nonprofit dedicated to reforming the U.S. criminal justice system.