The Human Face of Death Row

Reprieve is delighted to announce a thought-provoking exhibition of portraits by British artist Claire Phillips at the Oxo Gallery on London’s Southbank.

The Human Face of Death Row will bring the viewer face-to-face with different individual human experiences of the death penalty and ask us to consider the morality of ending the life of another human being.

Funded by the Arts Council, Claire travelled to Miami, Atlanta and Mississippi to meet a series of individuals whose experiences of the reality of death row vary enormously. These included:

• former inmates exonerated after long periods of incarceration;
• current inmates sentenced to death and some of their family members;
• an executioner responsible for four executions;
• the foreperson of a jury that convicted and sentenced to death a man who was later proved innocent;
• the family of an executed man.

Claire communicates her personal response to meeting these people through traditional portraiture. By avoiding obvious visual reference to the death penalty, she aims to present the humanity of each individual – their ordinariness despite their extraordinary experiences.

The comfortable visual representation of the subjects is in stark contrast to an accompanying soundtrack which features interviews with participants and a commentary from a 1984 execution in Georgia.

This project is supported by the Arts Council England, Peter Bottomley MP, Clive Stafford Smith OBE and London Mayor, Boris Johnson.

For further information, please go to www.clairephillips.com or contact Katherine O’Shea at Reprieve’s Press Office (katherine.oshea@reprieve.org.uk / 020 7427 1099).