Biennale 2006 - Capital Punishment ?

I went to the biennale at the National Museum of Singapore 2 days ago.

Exhibits are quite morbid. They even have a 58min film called "Last Supper" on execution of prisoners - Last Supper refers to the last meal eaten by the prisoners before they are executed.

I walked into the makeshift theatre in the middle of the show....a Thai Prison Officer was talking, describing what kind of food prisoners would ask to eat, but would actually eat very little of it. It is understandable. Who can? The left over food are given to the Monks. Then they interviewed the Monk who explained the significance of offering food to the deceased. It then switched from streets of Thailand to a spanking new kitchen in America. A nicely dressed chef was washing and slicing carrots and onions, preparing that 'Last Supper' for a prisoner. As he goes about preparing onion rings, he described the execution - how it is actually quite painful even though some said it isn't. The camera went back to Thailand. This time inside the execution chamber. There is a microphone above the execution bed, to record any last words that the prisoners may have. I noticed a CCTV at the corner of the room. The execution bed is in black leather with stripes - possibly to hold the prisoners down. The executor watches the execution from the next room fitted with a large glass panel so he has a full view of the execution. He goes on to describe rapid eye movements of the prisoner after execution - and explained that this means there is brain activity.

At this point, which is about 10 min into the show, I left.

Although there was no execution or image of any prisoner to be executed, the queasy feeling in my stomache grew as I left the room. It is not natural to take a person's life - It has changed my view towards capital punishment.

I told my welsh colleague about it and we had a short but interesting discussion on capital punishment.

There is an interesting article in www.yawningbread.org on "The case of Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi".

And it reminded me of the case of Van Tuong Nguyen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Tuong_Van) , who was executed in Dec 2005 for in possession of drugs whilst he was in Singapore and was in transit to Australia. I followed the case quite closely and when all pleas for clemency failed - my heart wept and it wept for his mother. I was undecided then whether drug trafficking - which could cause harm to many and break up families - deserve capital punishment. Now, I am quite crystal clear about it.

I emailed my good friend,who is an art curator, after watching the show and she replied:

'Well, the fact that you even emailed about the works should make the organisers thrilled that the artworks had such an effect. Art is about transformative powers - so if you were to be anti-death penalty after watching the last supper, the art work would be immensely successful. I haven't seen the piece yet - ......... The Last Supper is supposed to be a highlight work there - from your description, it's one that I shouldnt miss.'

I guess the artwork was pretty successful.


p.s.

There is another large exbibit sandwiched between 2 glass and was emitting light transmitted real time from Japan to Singapore - the light is from supernova activities of a cosmic stars which took millions of years for its light to travel to the earth - it is about ending (the star) and birth (of new planets). I just need some time to think about this one.