Formerly incarcerated artists bring their art and stories to Aspen

Marcus Manganni was in solitary confinement on Rikers Island and noticed a sliver of natural light that entered his cell from a small, distant window. 

He started sun mapping how the light would interact with the wall, marking with his fingernail where it was each day and realizing that the change in the sun’s patterns over time represented the change of the seasons — that’s how long he was in there, he said. 

In isolation, Manganni would create sculptures out of carceral matter, like toothpaste and toilet paper, and he eventually started taking the insides of empty potato chip bags between his fingers, he said, playing with how the material and the natural light would reflect colors and structures throughout his cell.