The last supper
[20 November]
The Last Supper is an art documentary that “nominally investigates Death-Row prisoners’ last meal before execution; the latter work, borrowing a neutral documentary style that served to underscore the film’s shocking implications, deftly avoided the slightest whiff of earnestness or sentimentality.” In an interesting turn of events, I realized halfway through reading about this project that it was done by Swedish artist duo Bigert & Bergstrom, whom I interviewed ten years or so ago, in a different life.
The Guardian writes about prisoners’ last suppers here.
Celia A. Shapiro has photographed last suppers (the accompanying text by Clara Jeffery and Emilie Raguso tells us that “Prisoners are generally allowed to choose a last meal, though requests for tobacco products and even chewing gum can be denied”):
Harry Charles Moore, age 56, executed by Oregon, 5/16/97
Jeffry Allen Barney, age 28, executed by Texas, 4/16/86
Donald Jay Miller, age 37, executed by Arizona, 11/8/00
Donald Jay Miller (continued, dessert)
John William Rook, age 27, executed by North Carolina, 9/19/86
Larry Wayne White, age 47, executed by Texas, 5/22/97
Ricky Lee Sanderson, age 38, executed by North Carolina, 1/30/98
Karla Faye Tucker, age 38, executed by Texas, 2/3/98
Stacey Lamont Lawton, age 31, executed by Texas, 11/14/00
Velma Margie Barfield, age 52, executed by North Carolina, 11/2/84
Timothy McVeigh, age 33, executed by U.S. government in Indiana, 6/11/01
And now for the big question: if you were convinced that cryonics would help you live forever, and you were about to allow yourself to be suspended, and you had just ordered your last meal (you know what you’d order, right?), then what would you like the space to look like in which you’d sit down to eat it?
The Last Supper is an art documentary that “nominally investigates Death-Row prisoners’ last meal before execution; the latter work, borrowing a neutral documentary style that served to underscore the film’s shocking implications, deftly avoided the slightest whiff of earnestness or sentimentality.” In an interesting turn of events, I realized halfway through reading about this project that it was done by Swedish artist duo Bigert & Bergstrom, whom I interviewed ten years or so ago, in a different life.
The Guardian writes about prisoners’ last suppers here.
Celia A. Shapiro has photographed last suppers (the accompanying text by Clara Jeffery and Emilie Raguso tells us that “Prisoners are generally allowed to choose a last meal, though requests for tobacco products and even chewing gum can be denied”):
Harry Charles Moore, age 56, executed by Oregon, 5/16/97
Jeffry Allen Barney, age 28, executed by Texas, 4/16/86
Donald Jay Miller, age 37, executed by Arizona, 11/8/00
Donald Jay Miller (continued, dessert)
John William Rook, age 27, executed by North Carolina, 9/19/86
Larry Wayne White, age 47, executed by Texas, 5/22/97
Ricky Lee Sanderson, age 38, executed by North Carolina, 1/30/98
Karla Faye Tucker, age 38, executed by Texas, 2/3/98
Stacey Lamont Lawton, age 31, executed by Texas, 11/14/00
Velma Margie Barfield, age 52, executed by North Carolina, 11/2/84
Timothy McVeigh, age 33, executed by U.S. government in Indiana, 6/11/01
And now for the big question: if you were convinced that cryonics would help you live forever, and you were about to allow yourself to be suspended, and you had just ordered your last meal (you know what you’d order, right?), then what would you like the space to look like in which you’d sit down to eat it?
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