Gao Zhen, a Chinese language dissident artist and half of the Gao Brothers duo, was detained on August 26 whereas visiting household within the Hubei province in China for violating a regulation that prohibits mocking heroes and martyrs. The main points of the 68-year-old artist’s arrest have been first introduced in an August 31 Fb submit on the Gao Brothers’ web page.
Up to date artist Ai Weiwei reposted the announcement on X the identical day, sparking outrage over the ideological crackdown of the Chinese language authorities’s extreme anti-defamation legal guidelines. Later, Zhen’s brother Gao Qiang confirmed the arrest to Radio Free Asia. Qiang has not but responded to a request for remark from Hyperallergic.
The sibling duo is understood internationally for its work satirizing Mao Zedong, the previous chairman of the Chinese language Communist Occasion, portraying him as an enormous child with breasts within the Miss Mao sculpture collection. In 2019, the brothers have been invited to hitch the Human Rights Basis’s Artwork in Protest collection in Oslo, the place they displayed the sculpture “Miss Mao Attempting to Poise Herself on the High of Lenin’s Head” (2009), that includes an absurdly small Mao atop an enormous Lenin head.
Zhen’s arrest on account of his inventive dissidence, which largely depends on manipulating Mao’s likeness to problem totalitarianism, follows an alarming legacy. The brothers’ father was taken political prisoner by Mao and died in detention after being labeled a “class enemy.”
The brothers have been advised their father’s loss of life was the results of suicide, however they advised the New York Occasions in 2009 that they by no means believed the state’s narrative.
Zhen was presupposed to fly again to New York from Beijing at present, September 3, however now stays detained within the metropolis of Sanhe. In line with the duo’s Fb submit, he was charged with damaging the repute of a “nationwide hero,” primarily based on a discover of detention his spouse obtained on his behalf. The brothers reportedly reside in america.
A regulation handed in 2021 underneath the management of Chinese language President Xi Jinping punishes the “slander” of nationwide “heroes and martyrs” with as much as three years in jail. Underneath these legal guidelines, in line with the United States State Division, the Chinese language authorities has charged journalists vital of official portrayals of Chinese language historical past and web customers jabbing at battle heroes, amongst others, with the bogus crime. The costs carry as much as three years of imprisonment, in line with that very same report.
In 2021, the US State Division reported that seven people have been arrested underneath the anti-defamation legal guidelines for insulting feedback directed on the late “Father of Hybrid Rice” Yuan Longping.
The Gao Brothers are listed as represented by the Deborah Colton Gallery in Houston, Texas, for a few of their artworks. The gallery stated it was unaware of the arrest and declined to remark.
Artists have taken to social media to name for the fast launch of Zhen and different Chinese language political dissidents held in detention. Amongst them was British-Chinese language author Ma Jian, who posted on X: “We solely ask the media and righteous individuals within the literary and artwork circles to concentrate to the artist’s plight, name for Mr. Gao Zhen’s launch as quickly as potential, and provides him and his household freedom.”