Mugshot brewed up over a cuppa with prisoners

A DUNDEE University student has used Britain’s love of tea to highlight the humanity of prisoners.

Graphic design student Monica Dunne, 21, created her “mugshot” exhibition for Dundee University’s Art, Design and Architecture Degree Show in response to a brief to explore a stigmatised community.

Monica visited prisons and probation centres in the UK to speak with offenders about their life over a cup of tea.

From there, the idea of using the mugshot, one of the images most readily associated with criminals, and flipping it to allow prisoners to tell their own story was born. Monica created a campaign to start discussions, using familiar mug designs and replacing their cliched slogans with emotive quotes from people she spoke to.

“World’s Best Mum” became “I know I’ve not been the World’s best mum” and “Keep Calm and Carry On” became “I Couldn’t Just Keep Calm and Carry On”.

She said: “I wanted to get across the point there is always two sides to every story. The first thing British people do when there’s a need to talk is put the kettle on and when I met former and current prisoners to hear their stories it was over a cup of tea. They recognised their mistakes but felt misunderstood and frustrated. They wanted to be seen not as inherently bad but as imperfect humans like everyone else. I had my own preconceptions and probably would have stigmatised someone if I found out they had been in prison but I learned so much from speaking to the people I did.”

Monica is one of about 350 students from Duncan of Jordanstone and the university’s architecture programme exhibiting at this year’s degree show.

Admission is free and the show is open Monday to Friday (10am-8pm) and Saturday and Sunday (10am-4pm) until Sunday May 28.

Monica Dunne