Juniper Gallery To Show Art of Death Row Inmate Rejon Taylor Special to Limestone Post

On October 10, 2023, Yuri Kadamov, an inmate on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana, spoke through a cellphone to a crowd of people at Juniper Art Gallery on West Kirkwood Avenue in Bloomington. His voice broke with emotion as he thanked us for coming to view his special exhibit and bear witness to the spiritual costs of capital punishment. For Yuri, who has been in solitary confinement for twenty-one years, it was the closest he could get to being a part of the event. For those of us gathered, we felt both his presence and his absence, both the miracle of his survival and the tragedy of his confinement.

Rejon Taylor in his prison cell “studio.” | Courtesy photo

I was at the event (watch video below or here), speaking on behalf of another death row prisoner, Rejon Taylor. In August, I became his official “Minister of Record,” in other words his religious advisor, and started to visit him monthly. Rejon is a writer, and I am a writer, and we had an immediate connection. I felt the best way for the audience to understand the conditions on death row was to hear Rejon’s firsthand account in his essay, “Death In Slow Motion.” I invited the audience to reach out to Rejon as an antidote to the isolation he experiences. Jaime Sweany, the owner of Juniper Gallery, began to correspond with Rejon shortly thereafter. The friendship that they formed has led to a new collaboration.

This spring, Juniper Art Gallery will display two of Rejon’s pieces — unearthing: plant life and unearthing: rocky treasures — as part of Juniper’s Regional Artist Exhibit that opens on April 5. Rejon’s paintings capture both what he remembers of the natural world from before he was incarcerated and the depravity of his current environment. 

Jaime Sweany, owner of Juniper Art Gallery, after hanging the work of Rejon Taylor for the gallery’s Regional Artist Exhibit. | Limestone Post

Rejon writes of unearthing: plant life, “This is my attempt to unearth impressions of nature from my childhood, when I would explore the woods in my childhood alone, admiring the wonders of plants, branches, leaves, buddings…. It alludes to my current situation, how I’m alone, displaced from the earth, without roots, still youthful and green, bearing fruit in spite of the rigors of solitary confinement.”

In his other painting, unearthing: rocky treasures, Rejon meditates upon old memories of digging up stones, recalling the textures and colors to make them real to him once again. “When I was a kid,” he writes, “I remember digging in the soil, my shovel scraping against rocks, stones, hard minerals underground. After unearthing them, I would water them down, washing away dirt, its reddish color like rust. Metallic flakes, engrained in the treasures, would sparkle in the sunlight…. I still remember the amazing colors inside the stones, how warm and cool tones emoted a kind of life, a subtle life that resonated with my being. I remember how the rocks felt in my hand. Some were smooth and sleek, perhaps polished. Others were jagged, rough, weathered. This piece is a conflation of those impressions.”

The question of solitary confinement is not just how to survive but how to stay alive, how to connect to life in an environment designed for death. “My art is how I connect to the world. My art is an extension of my heart,” Rejon says. “[This show] is an opportunity to contribute. I want the proceeds I get from the art to go into the Juniper Friends fund. I want to make sure that Juniper stays afloat and the community has the benefit of what [Jaime Sweany] is doing in her gallery.”

When I asked Jaime about the decision to display Rejon’s art, she spoke of how Rejon has been an inspiration to her. “His light lifts me up every time we connect, and I want to share that with the world.” 

‘The Spiritual Cost of Capital Punishment’

“The Spiritual Cost of Capital Punishment: A conversation on the Death Penalty, Art, and Prisoners in Indiana,” with Rev. Bill Breeden (UU pastor and witness to federal executions), Margaret O’Donnell (longtime death row lawyer from Lexington, Kentucky), Ross E Martinie Eiler (Bloomington Catholic Worker), and Laura Lasuertmer. Recorded by Duane Busick at Juniper Art Gallery on October 10, 2023, which was World Day Against the Death Penalty.

“Afterglow,” a diptych by Rejon Taylor