Despite harsh criticism, the Filipino artist Gabriel Co Tuazon has become a viral phenomenon after atypically exterminating a cockroach. The insect, which would normally have been finished with a poisonous or crushed spray, suffered the capital punishment invented by the dentist Alfred P. Southwick in 1881 as a “more humane” way to end the life of condemned prisoners, and thus stop resorting to hanging, publishes VICE.
The video, posted on the internet by user Tuazon, went viral around the world after presenting the entire process of annihilation of the cockroach and included the animal’s burial in an old box of matches-a ritual to which the vast majority of insects have no right.
Tuazon has been practicing his work as an artist using miniatures for many years and he says that far from being his first sculpture on a small scale, most of his work is like that. Looking at his Facebook, it is easy to see: the Chinese wall made of graphite inside a bottle of soda, lobsters made of recycled material and worms of nails. But then, why kill a cockroach in this fashion? “I saw a video of cockroaches on my social network; the guy tortured the cockroach using poisonous spray, “Tuazon stated. “The next day I was in my room and it was very hot, I opened the window and one of these insects came in immediately, landing on my desk. I did not want to crush it so I grabbed a piece of plastic and put it in a small box.”
“I was thinking about what to do when suddenly a miniature electric chair jumps in my mind. It took me 2 hours to make it. I had no idea how one worked, so I asked my father for help to connect my invention to the electric current, ” continued Tuazon. “I was very embarrassed to ask him because I knew it was silly, but I had to suck it up, I needed his help. I showed it to him and he laughed, he drew a diagram of how it could work and I connected it directly to the chair. The final voltage was 220.”
The invention has had a direct cost on the presence of Gabriel in social networks, he has received written protests, threats, wishes saying that he should be in the chair and negative reports on his page. When asked if he had any comments for the haters, he said: “People need to understand that cockroaches are a pests, they have lives but it is just one cockroach amongst billions that exist in the world. They care a lot about a cockroach but how about the rest of the animals are killed by hunting? Is that okay? Tortured, crushed or poisoned, there may be different ways to end them, but in the end it is always the same result. “
