It's right across the Agus Suwage piece based on Chairil Anwar so that room was emotional overload for me.

It's right across the Agus Suwage piece based on Chairil Anwar so that room was emotional overload for me.

I Want To Live Another Thousand Years by Agus Suwage A stunning series of 27 celebrity portraits, executed in watercolour and tobacco stains, I Want To Live Another Thousand Years has its origins in a painting of revolutionary Indonesian poet Chairil Anwar by Suwage in 2005. After producing the painting, Suwage was intrigued by the work and its attendant themes of celebrity, creativity, mortality – and conversely, the immortality bestowed upon one by art. Suwage subsequently developed a series of 27 portraits of deceased personalities, 27 being the age at which Anwar died. Each portrait has Anwar’s hand holding its cigarette superimposed in front, a leitmotif that gives rise to humour (as in the case of the Mona Lisa), as well as surprise and double-takes (for instance, when the celebrity portrayed is not known for being a smoker). The portraits were all based on images of...

Full article: http://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/the_collection/thousand.php