With last night’s execution of Australian prisoner Myuran Sukumaran, tributes are spreading like wildfire to him and fellow Bali Nine ringleader, Andrew Chan.
A particularly captiviating video was posted to YouTube today of Sukumaran’s art on exhibition in London at Amnesty International, along with snippets of Sukumaran talking about his own rehabilitation and making a difference with other inmates inside the walls of Bali’s Kerobokan Prison, specifically with the prison’s art program.
Though the video appears to have been recorded prior to Sukumaran’s execution, as people in it are still pleading mercy for his life, it makes an appropriate tribute and is oh so haunting.
“Painting is making them more creative. Making them think they can do other things with their life than what life is like inside of prison,” Sukumaran says in the video.
He explains that helping people, being productive and working with art, that’s what was keeping him happy in prison, rather than the alternatives of doing nothing or being destructive.
Sukumaran’s exhibition ran from April 13 to 17, the week of his 34th birthday.
He and seven other drug offenders were executed last night in Central Java, despite heavy international criticism.
