Red and White

Red and White, 1965-69

Woven cigarette packaging

Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, Morgan County, Tennessee

Named for its palette, Red and White is created from more than 1000 Pall Mall cigarette boxes woven together into alternating red motifs set against white squares. The resulting checkerboard patterns recalls a familiar design that occurs widely throughout the rural South on table cloths in homes and cafes.

Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary opened in 1896 following the Coal Creek revolt of 1891. The revolt took place when mine owners attempted to replace employees with convict labor leased through the Tennessee Prison system. Miners took up arms against  the Coal Company and its militia. Violence ensued forcing the Governor from office and leading to the abolition of the state convict-leasing program, but not before such labor built Brushy Mountain Penitentiary itself.

On February 11, 1982, a prison guard resigned after being accused of smuggling an
automatic pistol into the prison and giving it to Aryan brotherhood gang
members who used it to unload a hail of gunfire on a group of unsuspecting
black Inmates.