A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
Alcatraz Island is a small island 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. In 1934, the island was converted into a federal prison, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. The strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures made escape nearly impossible, and the prison became one of the most notorious in American history. The prison closed in 1963, and the island is now a major tourist attraction.
Zhu Yu is a performance artist and cannibal living in Beijing, China. Zhu graduated from the Affiliated High School of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1991. His work deals with subjects of contemporary art.
Fuck Off was a contemporary art exhibition which ran alongside the Third Shanghai Biennale (2000) in Shanghai, China. The exhibition's title translates as "Uncooperative Attitude" in Chinese, but the blunter English language sentiment was deemed preferable. The exhibition encompassed conceptual, performance, and protest art.
Yours truly is a form of valediction, especially at the end of a written communication.
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, for "economic crimes". He was detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators.
Founded in 1981, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is a nonprofit cooperating association that supports park stewardship and conservation in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area—the most visited national park in the U.S.
Alcatraz Island has appeared many times in popular culture. Its appeal in film derives from its picturesque setting, natural beauty, isolation, and its history as a U.S. penitentiary – from which, officially, no prisoner ever successfully escaped.
Zuoxiao Zuzhou, real name Wu Hongjin, (吴红巾), is a Chinese musician and artist.
Kevin Abosch is an Irish conceptual artist and pioneer in cryptoart known for his works in photography, blockchain, sculpture, installation, AI and film. Abosch's work addresses the nature of identity, value and human currency and has been exhibited throughout the world, often in civic spaces, including The Hermitage Museum, The National Gallery of Ireland, The National Museum of China, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, The Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, ZKM, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, and Dublin Airport.
The 2011 crackdown on dissidents in China refers to the arrest of dozens of mainland Chinese rights lawyers, activists and grassroots agitators in a response to the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests. Since the protests, at least 54 Chinese activists have been arrested or detained by authorities in the biggest crackdown on dissent since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Since the start of the protests in mid-February 2011, human rights groups have claimed that more than 54 people have been arrested by authorities, some of whom have been charged with crimes. Among those arrested are bloggers who criticise the government such as Ai Weiwei, lawyers who pursue cases against the government, and human rights activists.
The Free Ai Weiwei street art campaign was a series of protests during the PRC government's secret detention of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei for 81 days in 2011, organised by Hong Kong artists and art supporters. Various slogans calling for the immediate release of the artist such as "Free Ai Weiwei", and "Who's afraid of Ai Weiwei" accompany stencilled images of Ai were applied onto pavements, pedestrian overpass, and building walls all over Hong Kong, and similar posters and signs were displayed worldwide.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is a 2012 documentary film about Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, directed by American filmmaker Alison Klayman.
Gangnam for Freedom is a 2012 video clip produced by the British sculptor Anish Kapoor. It is a parody of the international K-pop hit single Gangnam Style, and it was created to advocate the freedom of expression as well as to support the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei, whose parody of "Gangnam Style" was blocked by Chinese authorities immediately after it was uploaded. The video features appearances by the staff of numerous contemporary art museums as well as human rights activists from Liberty, Index on Censorship, The Helen Bamber Foundation, and Amnesty International.
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case is a 2013 documentary film about Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, directed by Danish filmmaker Andreas Johnsen. The film won Best 2014 Documentary in Danish Film Critics Association's 67th Bodil Awards, played in the official selection of 2014 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto and International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
Andreas Johnsen is a Danish documentary director, producer, cinematographer. He is best known for the film Ai Weiwei The Fake Case (2013), about the Chinese artist and activist's life and battle against charges placed against him by the Chinese government. Johnsen's films often look at social issues in many different parts of the world, including Kidd Life (2012), about the Danish rapper and YouTube star Nicholas Westwood Kidd, and Man Ooman (2008), which looks at sex and gender relations in Jamaica through dancehall culture. In 2014, the Danish Film Critics Association granted him the Bodil Award for Best Documentary.
The For-Site Foundation, established in 2003, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating collaborative art about place. Based in both San Francisco and Nevada City, California, For-Site collaborates with artists and national parks to create site-specific works of all media. Its work includes site-specific projects done at usually inaccessible sites in the bay area, including Alcatraz and the Presidio, and a residency program and educational partnerships that both take place on their 50-acre site in Nevada City. Gallerist Cheryl Haines founded For-Site in 2003.
Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) is an art installation created by contemporary artist and political activist Ai Weiwei. It was first exhibited at the Tate Modern art gallery in London from 12 October 2010 to 2 May 2011. The work consisted of one hundred million individually hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds which filled the gallery's 1,000 square metre Turbine Hall to depth of ten centimetres.
Coronation is a 2020 documentary film directed by Chinese activist Ai Weiwei. The film documents happenings in the city of Wuhan, China during the global COVID-19 pandemic, and how the country's government and citizens have responded to and been impacted by the outbreak. Ai directed the film remotely from Europe, with dozens of volunteers and paid crews covertly gathering footage inside hospitals, homes, and quarantine zones across China.
