By Neil Johnston

An exhibition of unsigned art is currently on tour around galleries and arts centres in Northern Ireland.

It is called Captivating, and the title is doubly appropriate, in that it describes both the quality of the work and the circumstances in which it was produced.

For this particular show was created behind bars by men and women who are either serving, or have served, prison sentences.

And it has another unusual feature - because their anonymity must be preserved, it is the perhaps the only public art exhibition at which the artists cannot sign the painting.

It is part of a programme organised by the Prison Arts Foundation, which was established two years ago to provide a stimulating and creative outlet for prisoners.

It's patrons include a man who knows all about keeping the mind active in captivity, even though he was incarcerated through no fault of his own - the former Beirut hostage Brian Keenan.

The PAF currently has eight professional artists working in Ulster's jails and young offenders institutions, and they offer expert guidance not just in the visual arts but also in other disciplines like music, drama, poetry and prose writing and craft design.

The touring show Captivating, which has just opened at the Clotworthy Arts Centre in Antrim, consists of prisoners' paintings, drawings and sculptures selected for the exhibition by the Belfast visual artist Amanda Dunsmore, a fine arts honours graduate of the University of Ulster.

It also includes a short animation video produced by a group of prisoners. It has the emotive title Time Trap.

Apart from being the curator of the exhibition - she selected some 70 works, although they are not all on show - Amanda also spent some time earlier this year as a visiting prison artist.

"It was very interesting," she said. "I had never done anything like that before.

"Prisons are strange places. It's like visiting a different country. "But I enjoyed it very much, and I worked with both loyalist and republican prisoners.

"I would stress that I wasn't there as a teacher. I was there as a professional working artist to work alongside the prisoners.

"I was just a kind of general dogsbody - a technical advisor, if you like.

"But they were totally in charge of what they wanted to do and all the ideas came from them.

"One that comes to mind, for example, was the man who created a small sculpture showing a pigeon which has died on the barbed wire round Crumlin Road jail.

"He had been a prisoner there at the time, and although it was about 15 years ago, the sight had always stayed him. He watched it as it died, and it took two days.

"I suggested that he write something about the experience to accompany the sculpture, and he did."

Also accompanying the painting and sculptures on show are photographs which Amanda took of the artists' hands - a kind of substitute signature, in view of the fact that they cannot put their names to what they have created.

"Some of the work is very emotive," she said, "and when you can see a picture of the artist's hands, you feel you know them a little bit better. You can tell a lot about some one by looking at their hands."

"I think it reflects very well on the prison service that these men and women are being encouraged to express themselves creatively in this way.

"They are in prison because they are being punished, but you can't just put them away and forget about them. They have to come back into society again, and I think the Prison Arts Foundation is helping to equip them to do so."