A touring exhibition of works of art by people who have been on death row began yesterday at the Bopiliao Historic Block in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), with organizers inviting people to ponder inmates’ potential to change and alternatives to the death penalty.
The Not Who We Were exhibition displays more than 20 calligraphy works or paintings by 15 people, including Cheng Hsing-tse (鄭性澤), who spent 14 years behind bars until he was acquitted in 2017.
Not every prison offers art classes, but he had the opportunity to learn Chinese painting from 2014 at a prison in Taichung, Cheng told a news conference.
Photo: Sam Yeh / AFP
Some inmates sent their work to family members, but in that way, members of society would not see how they had changed, he said.
“The death penalty is not the only way to solve problems. I hope people can see the possibilities for inmates who are sentenced to death,” he said.
The exhibition features a simulated prison ward of 1.368 ping (4.5m2) with one toilet and two beds.
Some people say that inmates live a comfortable life, but the simulated cell shows that the walled space with only one window is very narrow, Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty executive director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) said.
Death row inmates are usually known for their worst acts, but few know how they can transform after being in prison, Lin said.
The exhibition aims to encourage people to see the possibility of change in inmates and how that might be prompted through social assistance, she said.
Trade Office of Swiss Industries deputy director Beatrice Latteier, who also attended the opening, said she is impressed by the artwork and wished she could read the calligraphic characters so she could understand the creators’ mindsets.
“For Switzerland, the promotion of human rights is an important concern and a foreign policy goal. The death penalty is against human rights and is neither a deterrent nor does it contribute to reconciliation,” Latteier said.
Hopefully, Taiwanese society would be open to discuss the abolition of capital punishment, with both sides willing to communicate, she said.
The exhibition in Taipei runs through July 26 and would travel to Miaoli County from Aug. 1 to 9 and to Tainan from Aug. 22 to Sept. 3.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS