Chinese Customs Seize Painting; China Detains U.S. Artist, Others

Image Via

via Artforum News; links + images courtesy of newsgrist:

Chinese Customs Seize Painting; China Detains Graffiti Artist

08.22.08

Birds Nest, in the Style of Cubism, a painting by Zhang Hongtu, is now at the Lin & Keng Gallery in Taipei, awaiting shipment back to New York, reports the Wall Street Journal's David d'Arcy. The ashen-brown piece shows the gleaming new Olympic stadium, designed by the Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron, as Picasso might have painted it--as a decaying ruin rendered in fragmented angled forms. On the canvas, cubist-style, are inscriptions in English letters and Chinese characters: TIBET, HUMAN RIGHT, and the Olympic motto, ONE WORLD, ONE DREAM. The painting was supposed to be in Beijing during the Olympic Games, in the exhibition "Go Game, Beijing!" organized by a Berlin marketing firm and displayed at the German Embassy. But it was seized by customs on arrival and denied entry as "unacceptable" for its color, its depiction of the stadium, and its inscriptions. The artist, Zhang, has lived in New York since 1982, when he left China to study at the Art Students League. His work, which blends Chinese and Western styles, often satirizes Chinese political icons, as when he put the image of Mao Zedong on Quaker Oats boxes. Speaking about Zhang, Jerome Silbergeld, a professor of Chinese art at Princeton, said, "This is part of his own dialogue with China and the Chinese government, and he got an answer."

Image Via

The Wall Street Journal also reports on its blog that James Powderly, an American graffiti and laser artist, has been detained by the Chinese government. Powderly was planning to debut a new "laser stencil" in Beijing that would have beamed words and images up to three stories high onto large flat surfaces such as billboards and building facades. On Tuesday, Students for a Free Tibet received a message that Powderly had been detained since 3 AM, his whereabouts unknown. Previously, the group that Powderly founded, Graffiti Research Lab, was disinvited from a group exhibition on new media art at a Beijing museum. In a statement Powderly said he was "proud to have been kicked out of the 'Synthetic Times' new media art exhibition in Beijing because he wouldn’t censor his little art project." Powderly’s work still managed to be seen in Beijing, albeit on much smaller (and briefer) scale. Last night, a group of five activists affiliated with Students for a Free Tibet used one of Powderly's inventions, LED "throwies" to spell out FREE TIBET in English and Chinese in Beijing's Olympic Park. The five were detained by security personnel after displaying the banner for about twenty seconds.

via RocketBoom (video):

Rocketboom: GRL's James Powderly and AiB's Brian Conley Arrested in Beijing

More via NYTimes:

5 Americans Are Arrested for Protest in Beijing
By ANDREW JACOBS and COLIN MOYNIHAN

 

Published: August 19, 2008

BEIJING -- In their latest confrontation with pro-Tibetan protesters during the Olympics, Chinese authorities arrested five Americans on Tuesday after they spelled out "Free Tibet" with blue L.E.D. lights near the National Stadium. Three other people, including a New York artist who fashions giant displays with lasers on buildings, were detained for a separate protest.

Representatives of the group Students for a Free Tibet, which organized both protests, said they had yet to hear from those who had been detained. "We're always worried when someone is in Chinese detention," said Lhadon Tethong, the executive director of the group.

Since Aug. 8, members of the organization have staged seven protests involving 37 people. All of those who were detained were promptly deported.

On Tuesday, five protesters hoisted a banner near the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, around 11 p.m. and projected their message in Chinese and English using blue lights. The display lasted just 20 seconds before the police intervened, organizers said. The arrested protesters were Amy Johnson, 33, Sam Corbin, 24, Liza Smith, 31, Jacob Blumenfeld, 26, and Lauren Valle, 21.

Less information was available about the other three detained protesters, who intended to use lasers to spell out "Free Tibet" on a Beijing landmark. Organizers said it was unclear which landmark was to have been used.

The project's mastermind, James Powderly, 31, is a Brooklyn artist who recently showed his work at an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York entitled "Design and the Elastic Mind." His wife, Michelle Kempner, said he had planned to show his work at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing but withdrew after learning the contents of the show would be subject to official approval.

She said he had invented a laser stencil the size of a flashlight that can throw beams of light 30 feet high. The device is powered by a small battery. Before arriving in China on Friday, Mr. Powderly told her that his goal was to spell the words "Free Tibet" on a prominent building near Tiananmen Square, she said.

Two video bloggers, Brian Conley, 28, and Jeffrey Rae, 28, were with Mr. Powderly when he was detained. On Tuesday night, he sent a text message to a friend saying he had been held since 3 a.m. on Monday.

"James has always been dedicated to providing tools for free speech," Ms. Kempner said in a telephone interview. "I'm trying not to think about it because it makes me nervous, but I'm also really confident."

Ms. Tethong of Students for a Free Tibet said other protesters were still in Beijing and that more actions were planned for the coming days. Given the tight security, she said she was pleased with the results so far. "Considering how badly the Chinese leadership doesn't want Tibet to be talked about, I think it would be considered a success," she said.

She said she was more concerned with the plight of protesters in Tibet. In recent days, she said, at least three people have reportedly been killed in the city of Ganzi after protesting on the street. She said one woman, Dolma Yungzom, was shot five or six times point blank after she unfurled a banner, though Ms. Tethong provided no evidence.

Andrew Jacobs reported from Beijing, and Colin Moynihan from New York.