Brother speaks out against death penalty at world premiere of Bali 9 member Myuran Sukumaran's art show

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyphenhyphenxcgqtnoUqBEl97rFXpYNUJQt9uSAUURahBW752pQwW253GyPo5aVbG9DpmHQoNrMz8BgwRg8B3hJBLJgon7yjCASEJZNl8H9D75iQTQG7bm04mFZ4NdpMGPTzB51Wx5qR1NITNx2VE/s1600/Australian+lawyer+Julian+McMahon+with+three+self-portraits+by+Sukumaran+The+72+hours+just+started%252C+Strange+Day+and+Our+new+prints+A+bad+sleep+last+night-+Photo+Amilia+Rosa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Lawyer Julian McMahon with three self-portraits by Myuran Sukumaran" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyphenhyphenxcgqtnoUqBEl97rFXpYNUJQt9uSAUURahBW752pQwW253GyPo5aVbG9DpmHQoNrMz8BgwRg8B3hJBLJgon7yjCASEJZNl8H9D75iQTQG7bm04mFZ4NdpMGPTzB51Wx5qR1NITNx2VE/s400/Australian+lawyer+Julian+McMahon+with+three+self-portraits+by+Sukumaran+The+72+hours+just+started%252C+Strange+Day+and+Our+new+prints+A+bad+sleep+last+night-+Photo+Amilia+Rosa.jpg" title="Lawyer Julian McMahon with three self-portraits by Myuran Sukumaran" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lawyer Julian McMahon with three self-portraits by Myuran Sukumaran</td></tr></tbody></table>The brother of executed Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran joined community leaders to speak out against the death penalty at the emotional world premiere of an art exhibition featuring his paintings in Campbelltown last night.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chintu Sukumaran choked back tears as he told the hundreds of people who attended the opening night of the Myuran Sukumaran: <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/bali-nine-member-myuran-sukumarans-gut.html" target="_blank"><i>Another Day in Paradise</i> exhibition</a> that he and his family felt a cross between pride and anger to see his brother's emotive and thought-provoking artworks on display.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are proud that Myu's work is being shown to the world but we are angry that he is no longer with us," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our family feel great sadness that his life was cut short so violently. We miss him all the time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's important to stand up against the death penalty."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Sukumaran, who attended the opening night with mum Raji and sister Brintha, said art gave his brother an outlet and the paintings showed the power of redemption.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Myuran Sukumaran found a passion for art and painted hundreds of portraits, including a series featuring each Bali 9 member, while incarcerated in Bali's Kerokoban Jail and from his final incarceration on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusa_Kambangan" target="_blank">Nusakambangan Island</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sukumaran and fellow Bali 9 member Andrew Chan were executed by Indonesian authorities on Nusakambangan Island in April 215.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chan's brother Michael also attended the opening night of the exhibition, which is on display at Campbelltown Arts Centre as part of the Sydney Festival.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Chan said the paintings were excellent and showcased what Sukumaran tried to do.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He made mistakes but he rehabilitated and this is what you see," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Chan said he and his family had their good days and bad days and he hoped something good would come out of the situation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sukumaran's lawyer Julian McMahon also attended the launch and described how he watched his client mature from a naive and angry young man to a person who reformed and found a passion for art and tried to make life better for the other prisoners in the jail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Campbelltown Mayor George Brticevic officially opened the exhibition and became emotional as he commended the bravery of the Sukumaran family for attending the event.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said he had served as a police officer for 22 years and the attendance of the family at the opening night was the bravest thing he had seen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYE30F1HaBFr83el0iruVXlxlRY6K41qm3GGNeT4TAaqAxnojX9NBYG1xXHHlhojEUC6zTZ4BJQCIvRSJSwLRKyOZdCgsZO7zZMR02noDNSRqF9W0dy3X6kiwe8BiSQmP2cqyWEuPe4vE/s1600/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYE30F1HaBFr83el0iruVXlxlRY6K41qm3GGNeT4TAaqAxnojX9NBYG1xXHHlhojEUC6zTZ4BJQCIvRSJSwLRKyOZdCgsZO7zZMR02noDNSRqF9W0dy3X6kiwe8BiSQmP2cqyWEuPe4vE/s400/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another Day in Paradise - Myuran Sukumaran's debut exhibition in Sydney</td></tr></tbody></table>Macarthur Federal Labor MP Mike Freelander and Fowler Federal Labor MP Chris Hayes, who served on the group Australian Parliamentarians against the Death Penalty, also attended the event and spoke out against capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The exhibition was co-curated by Sukumaran's mentor, Archibald Prize winning artist, Ben Quilty, and Campbelltown Arts Centre director Michael Dagostino.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The series of self portraits are on display at Campbelltown Arts Centre as part of the Sydney Festival.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the paintings featured in the series, The Final 72 Hours.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quilty became emotional at the launch and thanked the arts centre and Campbelltown Council for being brave enough to stage the exhibition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said he hoped the exhibition <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" target="_blank">blew the "haters" out of the water</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dagostino said he was keen for the arts centre to show thought-provoking works and become a vessel to discuss issues.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This exhibition is proof that art can change lives," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alongside Sukumaran's paintings, the arts centre commissioned works by 6 leading Australian artists which also explore the exhibition's themes and are displayed alongside his work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The exhibition is free to enter and will be on show at Campbelltown Arts Centre until March 26.</div><br />Source: Daily Telegraph, January 14, 2017<br /><br /><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">➤ Related content:</b><br /><ul style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/art-on-death-row-its-good-evil-vanilla.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Art on death row: ‘it’s good, evil, vanilla ... all things in what we humans call life’</a>, January 12, 2017</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/bali-nine-member-myuran-sukumarans-gut.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bali Nine Member Myuran Sukumaran's Gut-Wrenching Exhibition Opens</a>, January 11, 2017</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran</a>, January 9, 2017</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/mother-of-bali-nine-member-myuran.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art</a>, January 6, 2017</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Brother speaks out against death penalty at world premiere of Bali 9 member Myuran Sukumaran's art show

Lawyer Julian McMahon with three self-portraits by Myuran Sukumaran The brother of executed Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran joined communi...

Read more »

Another Day in Paradise

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s1600/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s400/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop</td></tr></tbody></table><b>Artist Ben Quilty co-curated an exhibition of works by Bali-9 member Myuran Sukumaran. It's a bittersweet elegy to the redemptive magic of art.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brushstrokes are declarations. Myuran Sukumaran’s swirls of paint, gingerly daubed onto canvas then layered heavily and deliberately are the markings of a man declaring his faith in the life-giving power of art – even as the prospect of death was closing in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“When I first met Myuran, he was very humble, quite shy but had a fierce fire and thirst for knowledge about painting,” smiles Ben Quilty, who alongside Michael Dagostino, is the co-curator of <i>Another Day in Paradise</i>. The exhibition brings 100 paintings by Sukumaran, who was executed in April last year with fellow Bali Nine member Andrew Chan, to Sydney for the first time. “He wanted to learn, he wanted to do it. Although the Australian media fed us the message that he was this violent, aggressive enforcer, I met a big, quiet, strong person who was protecting huge swathes of people in that prison. Everyone really respected him. He’d become an extraordinary man.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, the galleries inside the Campbelltown Arts Centre, a short drive from Sukumaran’s old primary school, are dotted with works painted by the fledgling artist while he was incarcerated at Bali’s Kerobokan jail. Along the main wall, a series of self-portraits – one in which his image is doubled, another in which a skull floats above his supine body as a memento mori – are harrowing and powerful, hinting at a search for alternate psychological destinies, even as his external fate was fixed.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKgRoeRXsr_OJpP-MEUvM5mt0SBUN3a1bIb_rD25biW0i0yePiweI13rRVqbkXC6WdCPvNXFY-arSQ9Nm2ucqb0pD-5i9cA6jAcjaDA1QNiFgzB-I0RFloxbbZELe44lCsB15HAL81xDE/s1600/Myuran+Sukumaran+at+Kerobokan+Prison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKgRoeRXsr_OJpP-MEUvM5mt0SBUN3a1bIb_rD25biW0i0yePiweI13rRVqbkXC6WdCPvNXFY-arSQ9Nm2ucqb0pD-5i9cA6jAcjaDA1QNiFgzB-I0RFloxbbZELe44lCsB15HAL81xDE/s400/Myuran+Sukumaran+at+Kerobokan+Prison.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran</td></tr></tbody></table>A body of work entitled <i>The Last 72 Hours</i>, made during his final imprisonment on Nusa Kambangan Island, is harder to take in without blinking back tears. Australian artists Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Megan Cope, Jagath Dheerasekara, Taloi Havini, Matthew Sleeth and Khaled Sabsabi were also invited to respond to Sukumaran’s paintings with pieces that call for empathy as well as the importance of human rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Painting is like learning to write and if you have a lot to say, you need to learn how to use language,” says Quilty, who became close friends with Sukumaran and later, the biggest advocate for his plea for clemency, after he received an email from his Melbourne barrister seeking advice on new painting techniques. “His language was visual and he wanted to learn how to use it, to speak about who he was. He was a quiet man with a big smile but there was a lot going on. He’d studied philosophy and thought through all the different aspects of what had led him to this gruesome predicament. He wanted to be able to talk about it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quilty, who counts a portrait series of Indonesian and Australian politicians among the artist’s most moving pieces, also believes that the lack of public empathy around Chan and Sukuraman is more complex than it first appears.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Part of it is due to the colour of Myuran’s skin,” he says, with a pause. “A lot of the criticism Andrew and Myuran received wouldn’t have been leveled at European inmates. I feel as if he looked the way I did, if he was a sixth-generation Irish-Australian, there would have been a far less brutal response in the Australian public. Painting those politicians was so pivotal for him; he had been painting self-portraits but he wanted to engage with the prime ministers of Australia and the president of Indonesia, who’d become the protagonists of his life and future. I want people think more broadly about compassion in our community. Because there are people here who hated him until the moment he died. I want them to come to this exhibition and respond to his humanity. The suggestion that all men who deal drugs should be executed is brutal, simplistic bullshit that needs to be called out.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For Quilty, whose own artistic trajectory has sought the darker corners of what it means to be a young man in Australia, it’s Sukumaran’s brushstrokes that matter now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Myuran was just on a mission to learn how to harness his visual language and in the last 72 hours you got the sense that he was on fire,” he says. “As an artist, you start to get a sense that through a practice you are leaving a legacy, and if you’re sensitive and passionate and good, that legacy will outlive you. They took his life but he had a voice and that voice will continue reverberating after he’s gone.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Another Day in Paradise</i> shows at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, as part of the <a href="https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/entertainment/article/sydney-festival" target="_blank">Sydney Festival</a>, from January 13 to March 26, 2017.</div><br />Source: <a href="https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/art-and-design/article/another-day-paradise" target="_blank">Broadsheet</a>, Neha Kale, January 12, 2017<br /><br /><b>➤ Related content:</b><br /><ul><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/art-on-death-row-its-good-evil-vanilla.html" target="_blank">Art on death row: ‘it’s good, evil, vanilla ... all things in what we humans call life’</a>, January 12, 2017</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/bali-nine-member-myuran-sukumarans-gut.html" target="_blank">Bali Nine Member Myuran Sukumaran's Gut-Wrenching Exhibition Opens</a>, January 11, 2017</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" target="_blank">Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran</a>, January 9, 2017</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/mother-of-bali-nine-member-myuran.html" target="_blank">Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art</a>, January 6, 2017</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Another Day in Paradise

Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop Artist Ben Quilty co-curated an exhibition of works by Bali-9 member ...

Read more »

Art on death row: ‘it’s good, evil, vanilla ... all things in what we humans call life’

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYE30F1HaBFr83el0iruVXlxlRY6K41qm3GGNeT4TAaqAxnojX9NBYG1xXHHlhojEUC6zTZ4BJQCIvRSJSwLRKyOZdCgsZO7zZMR02noDNSRqF9W0dy3X6kiwe8BiSQmP2cqyWEuPe4vE/s1600/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney" border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYE30F1HaBFr83el0iruVXlxlRY6K41qm3GGNeT4TAaqAxnojX9NBYG1xXHHlhojEUC6zTZ4BJQCIvRSJSwLRKyOZdCgsZO7zZMR02noDNSRqF9W0dy3X6kiwe8BiSQmP2cqyWEuPe4vE/s400/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" title="'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For those fighting the death penalty, art isn’t just about self-expression – it’s also a weapon in the battle for hearts and minds</b><br /><br />Close to 3,000 inmates are currently on death row while controversy rages following a series of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/13/pfizer-blocks-drugs-lethal-injections" target="_blank">recent botched lethal injection executions</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/03/record-number-people-exonerated-of-crimes-last-year" target="_blank">DNA-based exonerations of death row inmates</a> and growing concern over <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/27/racial-bias-texas-death-penalty-cases-harvard-study" target="_blank">racial discrimination in the criminal justice system</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Through art, a coalition of artists, educators and activists hope to humanise the plight of prisoners and sway public opinion. Organisations include <a href="https://reachcoalition.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">R .E.A.C.H.</a> which provides workshops to Tennessee death row inmates, <a href="http://minutesbeforesix.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Minutes Before Six (MB6)</a>, a blog by death row inmates dedicated to using arts and literature as a form of rehabilitation, and <a href="http://www.artforjustice.org/" target="_blank">Art For Justice</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In some cases, the human body itself has become a political tool in this debate. In a macabre twist, Texas death row inmate Travis Runnels has given his consent for his body post-execution to be donated to Danish activist Martin Martensen-Larsen to <a href="http://glasstire.com/2013/05/28/danish-man-to-exhibit-the-gilded-body-of-executed-texas-inmate/" target="_blank">be painted gold and preserved as part of an installation</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2012, the ashes of another executed convicted murderer from Texas, Karl Eugene Chamberlain, <a href="http://bigthink.com/Picture-This/should-a-death-row-inmates-corpse-become-art%20%20http://bigthink.com/Picture-This/should-a-death-row-inmates-corpse-become-art%20%20http://bigthink.com/Picture-This/should-a-death-row-inmates-corpse-become-art" target="_blank">were exhibited as part of an installation by Martensen-Larsen</a> in a Danish church.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.windowsondeathrow.com/" target="_blank">Windows on Death Row</a>, a travelling exhibition of over 60 works from death row inmates and some of America’s most famous political cartoonists, is currently on show at Ohio State University, while London-based artist Nicola White, founder of ArtReach: Reaching out with Art from Death Row – a project featuring <a href="http://www.artofsanquentin.com/" target="_blank">a website of art by San Quentin inmates</a> for sale, with proceeds used for victims of violent crimes, and to buy art supplies – plans four new shows of prisoners’ work this year in London. Her Twitter feed <a href="https://twitter.com/deathrowartists" target="_blank">@DeathRowArtists</a> provides a lively commentary on the art of San Quentin prisoners.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And in Sydney, a show of over 100 paintings by executed Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran, <a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a>, has just opened at Campbelltown Arts Centre, organised by artist and co-curator Ben Quilty, who was Sukumaran’s mentor and teacher until Sukumaran was executed in 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why have these artists and educators become involved? For Williams, formerly a death penalty supporter, it is to provide a voice for the voiceless. He adds: “If we’re going to kill these men, then we should be willing to listen to what they have to say.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For White, who has worked with more than 25 San Quentin inmates since 2015, art and self-expression is a basic human right that provides dignity to the condemned. These men are human – often showing “extraordinary talent” – not monsters, she says. Art can act as a powerful political weapon by putting a face and story to these lives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">White quoted Sister Helen Prejean, a Louisiana-based campaigner for death row prisoners and the families of murder victims, and an advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. “When she met a death row prisoner she had been writing to for the first time, [she] said, ‘When I saw his face, it was so human, it blew me away. I got a realisation then, no matter what he had done … he is worth more than the worst thing he ever did’.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For many, art has provided a form of personal rehabilitation. Quilty points to Sukumaran, and his journey from drug-runner to sensitive and self-knowing artist. White cites former Crips gang member Steve Champion, who has been on death row since 1982, age 18; he is now a self-educated author.</div><br /><b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jan/12/art-on-death-row-its-good-evil-vanilla-all-things-in-what-we-humans-call-life" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article (+ artwork, links)</a></b><br /><br />Source: The Guardian, Sharon Verghis, January 12, 2017<br /><div><br /></div><div><b>➤ Related content:</b></div><ul><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/bali-nine-member-myuran-sukumarans-gut.html" target="_blank">Bali Nine Member Myuran Sukumaran's Gut-Wrenching Exhibition Opens</a>, Ben Neuze, January 11, 2017</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" target="_blank">Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran</a>, Ben Quilty, December 24, 2016</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/mother-of-bali-nine-member-myuran.html" target="_blank">Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art</a>, Louise Milligan, January 6, 2017</li></ul><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div></div>

Art on death row: ‘it’s good, evil, vanilla ... all things in what we humans call life’

'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney For those fighting the death penalty, art isn’t just a...

Read more »

Bali Nine Member Myuran Sukumaran's Gut-Wrenching Exhibition Opens

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoYQrHuLIq3jzAbsb3mUXv8QRd74rpyOdwSrpJI96gtLxJ_xjWmH8yAlFAKQOEzkQLFXE4kt9H0CdgWMFWCXvzXf7BNnmKwoelrpIEHD5r5-8TNHWklLB7rv1KHSHjQKCsX5CaZ9B72QA/s1600/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney" border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoYQrHuLIq3jzAbsb3mUXv8QRd74rpyOdwSrpJI96gtLxJ_xjWmH8yAlFAKQOEzkQLFXE4kt9H0CdgWMFWCXvzXf7BNnmKwoelrpIEHD5r5-8TNHWklLB7rv1KHSHjQKCsX5CaZ9B72QA/s400/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" title="'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney</td></tr></tbody></table>The title for the first major exhibition of art works by Myuran Sukumaran, <b><a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a></b>, came directly from the executed drug smuggler himself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those words appeared in a subject line of an email sent to artist and Sukumaran’s mentor Ben Quilty, following a particularly violent riot at Bali’s Kerobokan Prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For the last four years of Sukumaran’s life, he ran an art studio within the prison and taught lessons to his fellow inmates. Sukumaran had access to the prison’s medical facility so that he could test participants for drugs (if there were drugs found within the art studio it would be shut down), which meant that when the riot broke out it was he who had to help.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There was a machete wound to a man’s leg,” Quilty says. “He sent me these very grainy iPhone photos of him sewing up a man’s leg, and there was just blood everywhere, and the email subject line was ‘another day in paradise’.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, almost two years after Sukumaran’s death, Quilty is opening the exhibition, featuring more than 100 of Sukumaran’s works completed in prison, alongside pieces commissioned from other artists (Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Megan Cope, Jagarth Dheerasekara, Taloi Havini, Khaled Sabsabi and Matthew Sleeth).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quilty co-curated the exhibition with Michael Dagostino, the director of Campbelltown Arts Centre, where the show opens this weekend as part of Sydney Festival. Dagostino says he was compelled to host the exhibition in Campbelltown given that Sukumaran grew up in western Sydney, where his family still lives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“<a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" target="_blank">Myuran’s story is a western Sydney story, one of redemption through immense adversity</a>,” he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it’s still a rather gutsy move on the part of both Sydney Festival and Campbelltown Arts Centre to exhibit the works of such a controversial figure.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although there was plenty of support in Australia for Sukumaran and his fellow executed Bali Nine member Andrew Chan (who features in the exhibition), the community was clearly divided. A poll held three months before Sukumaran’s execution asking “if an Australian is convicted of drug trafficking in another country and sentenced to death, should the penalty be carried out?” received a 52% affirmative response from Australians.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There are still a lot of haters in the community,” Quilty says. “And I invite them all with very open arms to come along to this exhibition, and I challenge them to walk away from this exhibition filled with the same hatred towards my mate as they had in the lead-up to his execution.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sukumaran became a prolific painter in his final years within the prison, and the exhibition features plenty of never-before-seen works, and a wall of paintings made during his last 72 hours of life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the works from those final hours sits on the floor, against the wall. Dagostino says that it symbolises Sukumaran’s unfinished business.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdUPkfQ0EFbjBhGlArzDrZALWiK9QfLHMY-PRyvvm2BZxWxEVWNQo5ja2QaHxDDihS470c5iSLpo_L9q0QeBYuSMERZO54Y9dG3jieVcaDnTXdsjytPn7k7cjCJp8dq8VcG6gp_DN6-4/s1600/Myuran+Sukumaran%2527s+final+painting+Indonesian+Flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Indonesian flag, by Myuran Sukumaran" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdUPkfQ0EFbjBhGlArzDrZALWiK9QfLHMY-PRyvvm2BZxWxEVWNQo5ja2QaHxDDihS470c5iSLpo_L9q0QeBYuSMERZO54Y9dG3jieVcaDnTXdsjytPn7k7cjCJp8dq8VcG6gp_DN6-4/s400/Myuran+Sukumaran%2527s+final+painting+Indonesian+Flag.jpg" title="The Indonesian flag, by Myuran Sukumaran" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Indonesian flag, by Myuran Sukumaran</td></tr></tbody></table>While the exhibition features less than half of Sukumaran’s total output, it includes key works known to the public, including his final painting: an Indonesian flag realised with thick red paint, seeming to bleed. The back of the canvas was signed by all nine prisoners facing execution that day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quilty believes that Sukumaran was only just starting to find his own “unique visual language” when he was executed, but that the exhibition demonstrates something quite profound.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I hope that this show goes a long way to showing not only the healing quality of what an art practice can do, but how much a visual language can change and alter the world, and make people think in a different way,” he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Quilty first came into contact with Sukumaran, he gave him a pile of art books to help him refine his painting skills. He says he’s never seen somebody develop their craft at such speed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Myuran was the first person to read those art books from beginning to end. I only looked at the pictures. He read every single word in every art book that I gave him,” Quilty says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also advised Sukumaran to turn the mirror on himself, because he was the most interesting subject that he had. One large wall in the exhibition features 36 self portraits, all grappling with different ways of looking at oneself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But his subjects also include his fellow inmates, all of the Bali Nine, his close friends and family members, and even the Australian and Indonesian politicians involved in the diplomatic negotiations concerning his case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What seems clear is that the exhibition will have a great emotional impact on many who visit, no matter where they stand on the death penalty and the Bali Nine case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Quilty says this is a brave and courageous starting point for Sukumaran’s artistic legacy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If Myuran only knew that this show was here, with these six extraordinary artists responding … I promised him that this would happen, but to know that it’s happened on this scale …”<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a></b><i> is at Campbelltown Arts Centre from January 13 to March 26. Entry is free.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="https://dailyreview.com.au/executed-bali-nine-member-myuran-sukumarans-gut-wrenching-debut-exhibition-opens/54586/" target="_blank">Daily Review</a>, Ben Neutze, January 11, 2017. Ben Neutze is Deputy Editor of Daily Review. He has previously written for Time Out Sydney, The Guardian Australia and Limelight Magazine.<br /><br /><br /><b>➤ Recommended reading:</b> <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" target="_blank">Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran</a>, Ben Quilty, December 24, 2016</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Bali Nine Member Myuran Sukumaran's Gut-Wrenching Exhibition Opens

'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney The title for the first major exhibition of art works ...

Read more »

Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s1600/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s400/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop</td></tr></tbody></table>How many times will I have to watch as a privileged, white politician pronounces, “We are not a racist country”?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I’m keenly aware that we are a remarkably tolerant and multicultural society. But we have a deep scar of racism that runs thick through our suburbs. And we all know it. Ask an Indigenous person how their day goes. Think of their ancestors being driven off their own land. Think of the hundreds of recorded Indigenous massacre sites across this country, how only a shameful handful are publicly acknowledged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Raji Sukumaran abandoned her own troubled homeland when her eldest son was a year old. She fled war with her ill husband, from Sri Lanka to London, following a trail of Sri Lankans, all seeking a safer future. London in the ’80s was brutal for the Sukumaran family and within two years Raji was planning to resettle again in Australia. In the last year of her eldest son’s life, I asked him if he’d faced racism as a kid at school in the western suburbs of Sydney. He laughed. Not one day had passed where Myuran Sukumaran did not face racial abuse and physical violence. That realisation was the closest I came to getting a clear insight into the path that led that little boy to his profoundly selfish crime and the final, breathtaking punishment. Never did Myu allow me to talk publicly about his childhood and the barrage of racial abuse that he had become accustomed to as a little boy. Like so many of my friends who’ve faced similar racism as children, they wear it in silence. It’s a part of their history they reconciled themselves to about a decade before they were old enough to vote. As a child, some primordial urge to be happy must allow little people to walk on, head down, through the assault. But the possibility of broken parts of a psyche after such a brutal childhood are, personally, impossible for me to reconcile. And now that my dear friend Myu is dead – executed by the Indonesian state, along with Andrew Chan and six others – it is important for me to air that. He quietly impressed upon me that the decisions he made were his own. He owned them and wanted no excuses offered for his making them. When I began to tweet #boycottbali he phoned me, irritated and anxious, and again asked for me to back off. It was not the Balinese who had made his mistakes. He made his mistakes, he told me. Simple. He blamed no one else for his crimes. Against unimaginable odds, Myu had become a good man.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When faced with the online cruelty of herds of faceless Australian trolls writing about Myu’s fate it was impossible for me not to assume that there was a racial bent to their hatred. At first they seemed so grossly misdirected, until I took into account that thick, ever-present scab of racism. Myu was a brilliantly reformed prisoner. He was honest and loyal, intellectually rigorous, humble and calm. The guards new it; his lawyers knew it; everyone who met Myu knew it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many questioned why I stood up for him. I was one of many, although through necessity I became one of the public faces of a community who had relentlessly fought for Myu and Andrew for almost 10 years, including lawyers, teachers, artists, philosophers, journalists and politicians. Why would we stand up for men who had broken the law in another country?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlxCXXP0azXIUceSDXFfW2g3ePe7MY1sUUvt2E1zIY3YsPxHGTxZ1752UffHPjRNW76vCp7TzoJoxTFWhrHtMer3VrgVXu95g7xdLxHtRdajIyTWhw3Tmpc-vjvzVp7_3B76QTw1nW3NQ/s1600/Bali+Nine+death+row+inmate+Myuran+Sukumaran+with+his+Archibald+Prize+entry%252C+a+self-portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran stands in front of his prize-winning self-portrait." border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlxCXXP0azXIUceSDXFfW2g3ePe7MY1sUUvt2E1zIY3YsPxHGTxZ1752UffHPjRNW76vCp7TzoJoxTFWhrHtMer3VrgVXu95g7xdLxHtRdajIyTWhw3Tmpc-vjvzVp7_3B76QTw1nW3NQ/s400/Bali+Nine+death+row+inmate+Myuran+Sukumaran+with+his+Archibald+Prize+entry%252C+a+self-portrait.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran stands in front of his prize-winning self-portrait." width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran stands in front of his prize-winning self-portrait.</td></tr></tbody></table>I am part of a community who is quite ready to stand up for our beliefs. We are ready to calmly call on other countries to seek compassion, strive for forgiveness and fight for human rights. We should call out bullying and racism in our schools and we should also use our most diplomatic voices to call out injustices in every community, on every continent. My beliefs lie in atheism. The beliefs that bound us in our fight for Myu and Andrew are not solely Christian values. They are fundamental to Buddhist and Islamic beliefs, Hindu, Sikh and Judaist. We weren’t declaring war on Indonesia for our beliefs, but we were standing up, using our voices, clearly and calmly – and if that “affects our relationship” with Indonesia, then so be it. As the world, from my studio, appears to be sliding sideways right now, loud clear voices are a fundamental part of the way out of this bloody mess. Voices are never violent and never threatening if those voices are calling for compassion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On January 13, 2017, Myu’s exhibition <b><a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a></b> opens at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney. The arts centre is a short drive from Myu’s primary school and from the high school he attended with Andrew Chan. In prison, Myu was by far the most dedicated student I’ve taught. He was reformed before I met him. Like many of my old mates, Myu was trying to find his place in the world, only he was searching for his calling from inside Kerobokan prison, Denpasar. <br /><br />Next year it will be 50 years since Australia has committed execution. Ronald Ryan was hanged in Pentridge prison on February 3, 1967. Back then opponents of the abolition screamed that without the vicious deterrent of gallows our society would slide backwards into violent anarchy. In 2016, Iran, America, China, Indonesia and North Korea all carried out executions. I’d suggest that we, 50 years later, are more peaceful than all of them. 2017 is a year for all Australians to stand up against brutality, against violence, against racism and against the death penalty. It is for the most compassionate Australians to sway popular opinion in our region. It is an obligation and it is a responsibility. Internationally, in 2017, we will have the moral high ground, the soapbox, and it should be used. Execution is not a deterrent to young wayward men. No punishment is. But reform is real. Myuran Sukumaran proved it. The exhibition of his brilliant paintings is testament to Myu’s world and to the power of a voice that he worked so hard to create.</div><br /><b><a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2016/12/24/racism-the-death-penalty-and-myuran-sukumaran/14824980004137" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: The Saturday Paper, Ben Quilty, December 24, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">➤ <b>Related article:</b> <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/mother-of-bali-nine-member-myuran.html" target="_blank">Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art</a>, January 6, 2017</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran

Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop How many times will I have to watch as a privileged, white polit...

Read more »

Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKgRoeRXsr_OJpP-MEUvM5mt0SBUN3a1bIb_rD25biW0i0yePiweI13rRVqbkXC6WdCPvNXFY-arSQ9Nm2ucqb0pD-5i9cA6jAcjaDA1QNiFgzB-I0RFloxbbZELe44lCsB15HAL81xDE/s1600/Myuran+Sukumaran+at+Kerobokan+Prison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKgRoeRXsr_OJpP-MEUvM5mt0SBUN3a1bIb_rD25biW0i0yePiweI13rRVqbkXC6WdCPvNXFY-arSQ9Nm2ucqb0pD-5i9cA6jAcjaDA1QNiFgzB-I0RFloxbbZELe44lCsB15HAL81xDE/s400/Myuran+Sukumaran+at+Kerobokan+Prison.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The mother of executed Bali Nine drug smuggler Myuran Sukumaran wants her son's artwork to travel the world as a powerful anti-death penalty message.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Speaking to 7.30 for the first time since Sukumaran's death in Indonesia in 2015, Raji Sukumaran said her once staunch-faith in God had been shaken by the execution of her son.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She recalled trying to enjoy her time with him as she watched him painting in prison, first in Bali then on the execution island of Nusakambangan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I used to sit behind him and watch him for hours and hours," Ms Sukumaran said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He spent so much time and he was so proud of it. The last paintings, he said, 'If I had another two years! If I have another six months! I could do better'."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Her son's last days and hours play like a film on Ms Sukumaran's mind.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I told him to go and have a rest. I told him to go and have a shower and have a rest and what for? He was going to be taken and shot.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"And I also remember telling Myu at the last minute, 'pray darling,' that God can do miracles, he can perform miracles, pray.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"And he looked at me and said, 'Amma, I will pray, but whether miracle happens or not, you continue to pray'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"And at that point I thought, 'he's given up'."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ms Sukumaran said praying was something she could no longer do.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Even God didn't help me. The Government couldn't help. They couldn't do anything," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"[Indonesian President Joko Widodo was] the only person who could have showed compassion and he didn't."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sukumaran was executed by firing squad alongside Andrew Chan in April 2015, after the pair was convicted for attempting to smuggle eight kilograms of heroin from Indonesia to Australia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">'His studio was his church'</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The paintings Myuran created in prison now form part of a major exhibition in Sydney curated by his friend and mentor, artist Ben Quilty.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghpzasb_jFgNfvgLRhX1x87xA3nwRQ0IeGmWMsKuO0PFF90EwPSOuHWn-Q8yLT_DfSCG54QAZLdUor1hWAVqgL-JcTVnW5wrDAGSt_k6iBi-AmSkjQd1pHQSjGuTPnuxfDsWaGh-41RTI/s1600/Raji+Sukumaran+is+comforted+by+a+family+member+after+holding+a+press+conference+at+the+Grand+Liana+after+seeing+her+son+and+Bali+9+ringleader+Myuran+Sukumaran+for+the+last+time+before+his+execution.+Picture+by+Adam+Taylor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran's mother, Raji Sukumaran" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghpzasb_jFgNfvgLRhX1x87xA3nwRQ0IeGmWMsKuO0PFF90EwPSOuHWn-Q8yLT_DfSCG54QAZLdUor1hWAVqgL-JcTVnW5wrDAGSt_k6iBi-AmSkjQd1pHQSjGuTPnuxfDsWaGh-41RTI/s400/Raji+Sukumaran+is+comforted+by+a+family+member+after+holding+a+press+conference+at+the+Grand+Liana+after+seeing+her+son+and+Bali+9+ringleader+Myuran+Sukumaran+for+the+last+time+before+his+execution.+Picture+by+Adam+Taylor.jpg" title="Myuran's mother, Raji Sukumaran" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran's mother, Raji Sukumaran</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am really proud of him. His painting was his life," Ms Sukumaran said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I want [the exhibition] to travel around the world and I want people to see his painting and I want people to see him through the painting.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was only in this world for a short time but he accomplished a lot."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quilty visited Sukumaran many times in Kerobokan Prison in Bali. He said painting was Myuran's "solace".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"His studio was his church," Quilty said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was the way he could sort those problems out could come up with, in a sense, visual answers, about the strength of the human condition, the strength inside Myuran Sukumaran.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Myuran Sukumaran's art exhibition, <b><a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a></b>, opens at Sydney's Campbelltown Arts Centre next week.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-06/myuran-sukumaran-bali-nine-mum-wants-people-to-see-him-in-art/8166806" target="_blank">abc.net.au</a>, Louise Milligan, January 6, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art

Myuran Sukumaran The mother of executed Bali Nine drug smuggler Myuran Sukumaran wants her son's artwork to travel the world as a powerf...

Read more »

Artist Ben Quilty on his Bali Nine friend and student Myuran Sukumaran

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s1600/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s400/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan prison's art workshop</td></tr></tbody></table>On November 10, 2012, three days after Julia Gillard flew to Bali to chair a democracy forum with her Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Mary Farrow went on Facebook to send a message to the Australian artist Ben Quilty. Farrow was a supporter of Myuran Sukumaran, the Bali Nine drug smuggler who had applied for presidential clemency four months earlier. Sukumaran, then 31, was facing death. His application said he had been “working to better himself” behind bars.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Farrow didn’t know Quilty personally, but had seen his Archibald Prize-winning portrait of Margaret Olley and thought she’d try her luck. So she explained how Sukumaran had taken up painting at Indonesia’s Kerobokan Pri­s­on, and how it was the “challenge of a lifetime”. He was going to enter a portrait of his lawyer, Julian McMahon, into the Archibald, even though he wouldn’t be eligible because he hadn’t lived in Australia during the previous 12 months. He had, of course, been locked up in Kerobokan since his arrest in 2005. Sukumaran had found “peace and salvation” in art, Fallow said, but he needed some “constructive advice”. “Could that be you or someone you know?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A few days later, Quilty sent a message back: “I will help.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Were it not for the Bali Nine, Quilty may never have travelled to Bali. Based in the NSW southern highlands, his adventures abroad tend to follow a certain pattern. In 2003, he travelled to Paris after winning the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship. In 2007, he spent four months in Spain on an Australia Council residency. Four years later he found himself working in Afghanistan, an official war artist for the Australian War Memorial. And earlier this year he joined Richard Flanagan in Lebanon, Greece and Serbia, documenting the exodus of Syrian refugees. But Bali? It wasn’t his thing. “It’s not for me to go to a Third World country and get massages,” Quilty says. “Never has been.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That Facebook message, though, had made Quilty curious. Like so many others in Australia, he had followed the case of the Bali Nine as it played out in front of the cameras. The fate of the nine young Australians had seemed inevitable from the moment of their arrest in April 2005, trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia. Denpansar judges handed down their sentences less than a year later. While seven of the nine were ordered to spend the rest of their lives behind bars, a harsher sentence awaited the pair seen to have leadership roles: death by firing squad for Sukumaran, the “enforcer”, along with his friend, the “godfather” Andrew Chan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For Quilty, there was something else that caught his attention. It’s common for artists who have achieved success to be pestered for advice, and he usually recommends a combination of hard work and art school. In this instance, though, there were encouraging signs. Sukumaran was also especially hungry to learn. He was interested in “thick paint”, and this resonated with Quilty, himself an impasto specialist.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“That’s why I engaged,” he says. “The questions he asked very clearly showed that he’d made some progress and that he’d tried, and I thought it was just so remarkable that someone in that circumstance was trying. It was also against the notion that I had of him. I’d only heard the press of him being this evil monster, the enforcer. So I just decided to go there and meet him.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 18 months have now passed since Sukumaran’s execution, and Quilty still stirs with passion and anger about the loss of his friend. As he looks back on those transformative years, recalling all the highs and the terrible lows, there’s also a distinct sense of admiration for Sukumaran’s achievements and character — especially now, on the eve of a new exhibition in Sydney dedicated to the work of a man who entered prison as a criminal and left it as an artist. “It’s a refuge,” Quilty says. “For me, that’s what art is.”</div><b><br /></b><b>➤ <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/artist-ben-quilty-on-his-bali-nine-friend-and-student-myuran-sukumaran/news-story/a27f9bef7742102aff621dc28df40d26" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: The Australian, Ashley Wilson, December 17, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Artist Ben Quilty on his Bali Nine friend and student Myuran Sukumaran

Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan prison's art workshop On November 10, 2012, three days after Julia Gillard flew to B...

Read more »