International Artist Detained in Beijing for Planning Pro-Tibet Free Speech Exhibit Students for a Free Tibet Notified of Detention by Twitter Message

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2008

Contacts:
In Asia, Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director, and Kate Woznow, Campaigns Director
US +1-917-289-0219 UK +44 20 7084 6245

Photos and more information available at: http://freetibet2008.org/globalactions/jamespowderly/

International Artist Detained in Beijing for Planning Pro-Tibet Free Speech Exhibit
Students for a Free Tibet Notified of Detention by Twitter Message

Beijing – Internationally known artist, technologist and co-founder of the Graffiti Research Lab, James Powderly, was detained in Beijing early this morning while preparing to debut a new work and technology of protest, the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil. According to a “twitter” message received today by Students for a Free Tibet at approximately 5 pm Beijing Standard Time, Powderly had been detained by Chinese authorities at 3 am. His current whereabouts remain unknown.

“James is a unique voice in the world, who lives and breathes art and technology for the purpose of promoting and enabling freedom of expression for all,” said Nathan Dorjee, Director of Technology for Students for a Free Tibet. “His trip to Beijing, in support of the Tibetan people and all people around the world whose voices have been silenced by their governments, is a small piece of his portfolio as an artist who won’t back down in the face of authority.”

The work, “The Green Chinese Lantern,” uses a 400 milliwatt handheld green laser with micro-stencils to beam simple messages and images up to three stories high on surfaces such as billboards, buildings, and bridges. The Laser Stencil technology was developed in conjunction with Students for a Free Tibet.

Powderly’s direct experience with censorship by Chinese authorities furthered his commitment to highlighting the Tibetan cause during the Beijing Games, in partnership with the efforts of Students for a Free Tibet. Powderly and other members of the Graffiti Research Lab were dis-invited from Synthetic Times, a new media art exhibition at Beijing’s National Media Art Museum of China, due to the Lab’s uncompromising stance on freedom of expression.

Students for a Free Tibet has staged six protests in Beijing over the last two weeks, placing the issue of Tibet’s occupation front and centre as China hosts the Olympic Games. The protests have included a dramatic banner hang near the Bird’s Nest Stadium; a display of Tibetan flags near the Bird’s Nest just before the opening ceremony began; a symbolic die-in at Tiananmen Square; a protest by a Tibetan woman with flags outside Tiananmen Square; a blockade of the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park; and “Free Tibet” banner hang outside the CCTV headquarters. Thirty-seven members and supporters have been detained and deported, not including those detained today.

Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) is a network of young people and activists campaigning for Tibetan independence, with 700 chapters in more than 30 countries worldwide. SFT’s international headquarters are in New York, with offices in Toronto, London, and Dharamsala, India.

-30-

Notes to editors:

1) About James Powderly (In his own words)

James Powderly started this shit back in the year of the dragon, 1976, on the edge of Summit landfill in Ooltewah, TN. He has been making creative technology and media in the fringes of robotics, graffiti, tattoos, chemistry and rock n roll, since 1992. For two years, James was a research fellow in the Eyebeam R&D OpenLab developing tools for graffiti artists and activists and releasing them in the public domain. Currently, he is working as a research director at the Free Art and Technology Lab, which he co-founded in 2008. Back in the day, James was engineer and the Director of Technology Development at Honeybee Robotics, a Manhattan-based NASA contractor. He was a part of the team that developed the Mars Exploration Rover’s Rock Abrasion Tool and built a wall drilling robot for Diller + Scofidio’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. For his own work, James has been awarded a few grants, fellowships and commissions, including an Award of Distinction in 2006 from Ars Electronica for co-founding the Graffiti Research Lab. His work has been featured in the NYTimes, Wired, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Digg.com and on the front page of YouTube. His projects have been exhibited at the MoMA and the Tate Modern and his first feature-length film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. But you, dear reader, can find his work year-round on the web, forever on the surface of Mars and on other people’s property all over the world.

James is 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. James wonders why organizations like the MoMA, Parsons, Eyebeam, Ars Electronica and many other arts and cultural institutions around the world who claim to support free speech and expression would participate in a show like this. But they did! It was after being kicked to the curb by the show’s curator that James connected with Students for a Free Tibet and decided he would go to China anyway and do what he though was right in support of Tibet, Taiwan, free speech and the people of China. James lives, if indeed he is alive, in the County of Kings, Brooklyn, and teaches at the Communication Design and Technology program at Parsons the New School for Design. I am James Powderly and I approve of this message.

1) Photos of James are available online at: http://freetibet2008.org/globalactions/jamespowderly/

2) More information on the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil is available at: http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?p=161