On the 26th of May 2011, Muzlimbuzz had the opportunity to attend an art exhibition titled “CAPITAL”. In this exhibition, Seelan Palay & Shikin Ali apply a new visual ensemble to explore ideas of crime and punishment, social and political constructs, and humanitarian values that hang in the balance. Take a look at the pictures that were taken that day.
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Muzlimbuzz managed to have a chat with the artists and this was what ensued:
Muzlimbuzz: Congratulations on the exhibition! What did you hope to achieve out of it?
Seelan & Shikin: Thank you for your wishes. With the Capital exhibition, we had hope to both express our views on capital punishment through art, and communicate critical ideas with the public. By uploading photographs from the exhibition online, we believe we’ll be able to achieve both of those goals.
Muzlimbuzz: There are many issues that you could have addressed, why capital punishment?
Seelan & Shikin: We’ve always been creating art with social and political themes. Capital punishment in the Singapore context is an issue that we felt needs more attention paid to because Singapore is believed to have the highest rate of executions per capita in the world.
Muzlimbuzz: Will there be a follow-up to this art exhibition, with regards to capital punishment?
Seelan & Shikin: We might not hold another exhibition solely on capital punishment though we will continue to address the issue in various works and also by directly helping the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign (SADPC).
Muzlimbuzz: I heard that Alan Shadrake himself came to the exhibition! Were you guys thrilled? What was the guy like? What did he have to say about it?
Seelan & Shikin: Yes we were thrilled that Alan Shadrake managed to attend the exhibition. He was his jovial self and he told us that he was quite impressed with the various ways in which we used art to address the issue. He also took a photograph next to the painting we made of him!
Muzlimbuzz: Did you have a favourite exhibit? Why?
Seelan & Shikin: We view the entire exhibition as one body of work, all interconnected at various levels. So we can’t say that we have a favourite in this show.
Muzlimbuzz: What were the crowd’s favourite?
Seelan & Shikin: The crowd’s favourite was a work titled ‘5:59am’ which was an installation of clocks with the faces of high profile death penalty cases in Singapore.
Muzlimbuzz: When can we see works from either of you again?
Seelan & Shikin: For now we do have an even bigger exhibition on the state of the nation to be held in April 2012, though we might have a smaller one in between.
Muzlimbuzz: What’s your philosophy in life?
Seelan & Shikin: We believe that every human being should be entitled to his or her rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This of course includes the right to life.
Pictures by Velvet Eye Photography
