Matija Milkovic Biloslav, a Slovenian artist participating in Singapore's Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts Asian Arts Camp: Urbanonurban exhibition, had his installation (entitled "I am going to send you to a better place than this. God bless you.") altered after the exhibition opened. Logically, "I am going to send you ..." would seem to have referred to the imminent hanging of Australian citizen Nguyen Tuong Van, who was convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to death in Singapore in 2004. The installation included:

• Nooses dangling from the ceiling.
  
• Knocked-over stools.
  
• One upright stool, upon which an unused piece of rope sat, and which was further embellished with a piece of paper that read, "C856." (This is Van's prisoner number.)

The name of the piece, itself, is that phrase Singapore's veteran hangman, Darshan Singh, utters prior to opening the "trap door" during an execution. (With me so far on the "logically" part?)

However ... however ... after the exhibition's opening night, the numbered paper was removed, an Australian newspaper was threatened with a lawsuit if it published an image of Biloslav's installation and Lasalle-SIA officials have vehemently denied the piece was, in any way, political. It was all coincidental, in fact. Interesting to note that while political art is not, strictly speaking, illegal in Singapore (though it is considered "out of bounds"), visiting artist Biloslav's was the lone voice from within Singapore saying anything at all about Van's upcoming execution - something that has caused a public uproar elsewhere. The execution is scheduled for Friday, December 2, 2005. The Urbanonurban exhibition closed today.