From prison to portraiture

Abstract

While serving his sentence for treason, William Apap experienced terrible loneliness and withdrawal in the secluded prison enviromnent. One evening, a fellow prisoner identified as Adriano T., like him a political detainee, reported hearing sobs from a cell nearby and, across the iron bars, seeing shadows of a kneeling figure and a live flame. Although constrained to remain within the confines of the prison walls, Adriano had permission to walk between the cells and, in doing so, found Apap kneeling and crying before an image of the Virgin Mary which he had depicted on the chalky wall of his cell using charcoal.