RAG Solo: Joy, Enough is Enough, Who You Are Where You Are

Presented at The Blue House in Dayton, Ohio, Enough is Enough: Who You Are, Where You Are featured the work of Joy Hoop, a founding member of the Returning Artists Guild who has been incarcerated for nearly three decades. Created using materials available to her in prison—including discarded clothing, recycled cardboard, leftover paint and found objects—the work explores confinement, resilience, identity and the freedom Joy finds through her creative practice. The exhibition was organized by Returning Artists Guild co-founders Aimee Wissman and Kamisha Thomas and remained on view through May 31, 2025.

Joy's Statement:

This unique collection provides a rare glimpse into the life of a woman who has been incarcerated for nearly three decades.

During Joy's twenty eight years behind bars she has experienced the devastating low of guilt and shame, the excruciating pain of grief and loss, and finally, through hope, the profound beauty of being herself.
As you examine each work, search beyond the canvas. You will discover the mundane, the marginalized, the isolated, the hope, the triumph, and the overwhelming resilience of her human spirit.

Joy's work demonstrates that for her, freedom is being who you are where you are.
“As an incarcerated artist, I use material that is within my reach. This includes discarded clothing, recycled cardboard, left over paint, and found and repurposed objects. Each piece of work is intentional. How am I feeling? Is there a message? Then I begin a meticulous process of collecting and assemblage. There comes a time when perhaps: Enough is enough.”

Curatorial Statement

Joy is one of the founding members of the Returning Artists Guild (RAG). Joy is a true visionary and prolific creator. Joy has beautiful blue eyes.

I was once standing on my balcony in a rainstorm and a great blue heron flew up, twisting in the sideways rain, just feet away from my face and I cried all night about it. I think it was about Joy getting denied. And the the big lie about the parole board: their job is not to release people who have served their time but rather to find the reason why they should stay. I don’t know if its more of a CYA mentality or just the reality of mass incarceration as modern day slavery. A body is worth something to them in a way that deeply impacts the psyche of anyone who is subjected to the carceral state.

I remember being so excited to move into the housing unit Joy was in. I jokingly called her and her posse of girls “my grandmas” because they were. They all knew how to use fiber and make things that could keep you warm or let you hold onto something. Joy had a kind of passion and restlessness about her that was different, something I wanted to be around. To me, it seemed like Joy had a love of learning something new, a deep desire to play more, and a willingness to fail in pursuit of creative action: to make something, anything outside the reality of being inside.

When they have taken everything from you, there’s nothing left to lose. In using her artist voice, Joy has autonomy and freedom right now. Joy speaks and you listen. Sometimes we used to stack rocks together outside and I tried to soak her up like sunshine. I wish more than anything she was here in the studio with me making a big fucking mess with all her “trash.” She will go before the board again soon and I along with the RAG and everyone she’s impacted and loved look forward to welcoming her home. Please stack a rock, light a candle, and help us hold this vision of her free future together as a community.

To be more “curatorial” for a moment, as you consider her work you may be able to identify a symbolic and carceral language she’s using through her use of material, technique, repetition, and structure. Joy is a wizard at dismantling and repurposing trash and found materials like cardboard, file tabs, staples, fibers, etc. Her skill in using the waste of carceral space to communicate the limitations of confinement through the arrangement of grids, units, and barriers, speaks to a deeper understanding of the nature of masking in plain sight what is essentially a deep critique of and rage toward the true psychic harm of incarceration. Her work is also beautiful, playful, and full of energetic light just like her. She creates to remain whole.. what comes out comes out… she knows how to be who she is where she is… pure Joy.

I remain filled up with so much gratitude for the years of Joy’s friendship and the honor of curating her work and supporting her creative practice through RAG.

Enough is enough! Free Joy! - Aimee Wissman