Chinese artist Gao Zhen has been detained for over a year awaiting trial for artworks created more than a decade ago that critically depicted China's founding leader Mao Zedong. The 68-year-old artist, who had emigrated to the United States with his family, was arrested in August of last year during a visit to China, highlighting the increasingly restrictive environment for artistic expression under President Xi Jinping's administration.
Zhao Yaliang sits at the dining table of her tiny apartment, displaying pictures her husband created in his prison cell - silhouette-like portraits and scenes that look like paper cutouts but were made by hand without scissors, simply torn from paper. One image shows Gao's overcrowded cell, another depicts his seven-year-old son, and there's also a self-portrait. "Here you can see the number he was given in prison. In his eyes are the silhouettes of our son - and of me with shorter hair," Yaliang explains. These images, along with letters, are her only connection to her husband, as she is not allowed to visit him and only learns what lawyers relay to her.
Gao Zhen is imprisoned with 15 other inmates and has been waiting for his trial for more than a year. His wife and son are prohibited from leaving the country. The family had actually emigrated to the United States long ago but returned last year for a visit despite warnings from friends and Gao's younger brother about the risks. "Many friends, including his younger brother, didn't want us to go back to China. They warned us that it was too big a risk. But Gao Zhen missed his large workshop here. He wanted to come back and paint," Zhao Yaliang recounts.
Shortly after his arrival, police raided the studio and confiscated several works that are more than 15 years old - long known pieces, some of which had been displayed in museums worldwide. However, the government under President Xi Jinping is now cracking down harshly on such art. Under a new law, authorities charged Gao Zhen with "insulting the honor of war heroes and martyrs."
The controversial works were created by Gao Zhen together with his brother Qiang - three sculptures that deal with the glorification of state founder Mao Zedong: a statue of a kneeling Mao in a penitent pose, a sculpture called "Miss Mao" with a Pinocchio nose and breasts, and an installation featuring Mao look-alikes standing as a firing squad before Jesus Christ. These are drastic works, but in the late 2000s and early 2010s, there were still spaces for such art in the People's Republic. A critical look at history was still possible within narrow limits, including at Mao's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, which plunged the country into chaos.
The Gao family had also suffered under that period. Looking at old recordings from 2009 showing Gao Zhen with his brother in their former workshops, his statements about the works seem like they're from a distant world. "We deal with the past and the brainwashing that everyone was subjected to," Gao Zhen said at the time. That someone would say such sentences publicly in China today is almost unimaginable.
From abroad, Gao Zhen has sought support with a letter to his former companion, internationally known artist Ai Weiwei, who lives in exile. Ai had repeatedly drawn attention to grievances in China with art actions more than a decade ago and was finally arrested in spring 2011. Many artists, including Gao Zhen and his brother Qiang, gave interviews to international media at the time and advocated for his release. Gao also recalls this in his letter to Ai Weiwei: "I am writing to you to ask if you can help me. If it's possible, I would hope that you could use your great influence and invite some international artists to advocate for me."
Ai published the letter in Chinese on his social media channels without further comment. When approached by German broadcaster ARD for an interview, Ai Weiwei's management responded that the artist does not want to comment publicly on the matter at this time. Recently, Ai has hardly engaged publicly and critically with his homeland China anymore. The Gao family had hoped for clear support from Ai Weiwei, but so far he has not spoken out.
Many artists no longer dare to raise their voices, even when they are in exile, says Chinese writer Ma Jian, who lives in London. He had initiated a petition on Facebook immediately after Gao's arrest last year and asked Chinese intellectuals in China and abroad for support. "Many of the responses I received were along the lines of 'We have to think about our family's safety.' There are so many Chinese celebrities, intellectuals, artists. They all avoid publicly expressing their opinions. I know that if they sign, maybe the police will knock on the door." Or perhaps knock on the door of relatives in China.
How much pressure some Chinese artists face even abroad was also evident over the weekend. In New York, the IndieChina Film Festival featuring works by Chinese filmmakers dealing with topics like COVID, queerness, and Tibet was canceled. The organizers explained that 80 percent of the submissions were withdrawn because filmmakers had been pressured.
In China itself, critical art now exists mostly only in small niches. Small groups sometimes meet without larger public awareness. Some artworks are only recognizable to insiders - such as objects that have to do with imprisonment without this being immediately apparent. On Beijing's famous art mile 798, a former factory complex that once attracted many critical spirits of the art world and where the Gao brothers also had a workshop, commerce is increasingly taking over. Cafes and tourist souvenir shops are displacing more and more galleries - and those galleries regularly receive visits from censorship authorities.
Many artists no longer dare to cross certain lines, says someone from the art scene who prefers to remain anonymous. "Some artists in China actually still produce critical works, but they cannot show them to a large public. But there is still critical thinking. That's the most important thing. Even if this might be the low point for modern art in China right now." Many artists therefore avoid critical topics or hide them in abstract art to protect themselves and their families, the person from the art scene says.
Gao Zhen's wife Yaliang has since traveled once more to the prison where her husband is held. She can only wait for the lawyers at the prison gate. On this day, they again have no news about when exactly the trial will begin. "To give up all resistance would mean giving up an artist's right to free expression," Gao Zhen wrote in his letter to Ai Weiwei. Gao Zhen is paying a high price for this stance. The lawyers expect a three-year prison sentence. Meanwhile, Gao Zhen no longer receives paper and pens. The source from which he and his family drew some comfort - the letters and artworks from prison - has thus also dried up.
