The walls of the maze (HMP) are smaller than I expected. They remind me of past visits to concentration camps in central Europe. It was a surprise to me how small these wire fences surrounding the camps are. It doesn't take much to confine and kill. It doesn't seem to take much to cage a person.

I was invited to the Maze as a visiting artist by Mike Moloney, Development Officer for the Prison Arts Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated to bringing all types of creative activities to prisoners, ranging from theatre workshops, poetry groups, paint magic classes and craft techniques such as fly fishing tying.

One such project is the 'Artist in Residence' programme. Eight visual artists (myself included) from a variety of artist professions, have been invited to do a one-month residency at the Maze. The residency is open work either in collaboration with the prisoners or use the prison/prisoners as subject-matter.

Trained as a sculptor, I also work in installation, photography, performance, video and sound. It took me a little while to decide which artistic language to focus on for this project. Due to strict security considerations, cameras and video equipment are not allowed into the Maze. I would like to create a number of animation pieces with the prisoners, and hope to circumvent the security problem by making a paper 'What the Butler Saw' moving picture machine, and then video the completed works 'outside' with an edited sound track.

More recently, when Mike spotted on my CV that I had experience as a curator, he asked if I would organise an exhibition of art from the prisons HMP Maze, HMP Magberry, HMP Milligan, and the Young Offenders Centre, Hydebank. The Prison Arts Foundation works in varying degrees with all four establishments.

Once my security clearance had been confirmed - which entailed filling out an in-depth form, where questions on what I had for breakfast would not have looked out of place - I set out to investigate.

Prisons are cold ranging windy places on the outside, isolated and hot on the inside. An experienced visitor wears many warm, easily removable layers, wrapped in a water proof. Once inside, the walls seem overly thick and the cells are very small. The tea, like prison humour, is very strong, verging on the black.

I visited all of the prisons, meeting the prison staff, the art teachers and of course the people who created art in prison - the artists: thirty-five of whom took part in the recently launched exhibition, CAPTIVATING, Art From Prison. CAPTIVATING is a selected exhibition, a presentation by Loyalist and Republican prisoners, as well as the wonderfully named O.D.C.s, which translates as Ordinary Decent Prisoners. The Young Offenders Centre, Hydebank, was also represented with an installation titled Plaster Dogs and Soft Hearts. Each work is accompanied by a signature b/w photographic portrait of the artist's hands.

Within these prisons there is a support system that allows prisoners to enhance their education, which includes art classes. Though the resources on offer to prisoners practising art are limited due to finding security considerations, what struck me is the high standard of art being produced. Art, for artists, is about process, and this holds true for people I met in prison. The process, more than the finished piece, is very important. This makes sense when you consider the environment; like a good book, making art can take the prisoner to another place.

In the words of an ex-prisoner:

"Everybody has something, you see, no matter how bad they are. And prison is a place to let it out, you know what I mean? If you don't find it anywhere in the world, you'll find it there."

Currently, prisoners are a very topical subject in Northern Ireland. Soon this media interest will subside, but people will still be entering the prisons, or returning to society. The Prison Arts Foundation will continue through the various creative languages of the arts, to facilitate situations where prisoners can express themselves. Good art, for me, encourages people to look and think about life in different ways. I believe that art in its most effective form ( I classify art as writing, film, theatre, music, painting, etc.) can help people to question themselves and perhaps to define more positive solution.