Royal College of Art student Wang Hanzheng thought a Brick Lane wall was better than a gallery
”. But in a move described by some as ironically totalitarian, Tower Hamlets council swiftly painted over the wall’s mess of slogans and issued Wang a £50 fine.
“Contemporary art is all about doubting everything and having a rebellious spirit,” said the 27-year-old, who also goes by the name Yi Que. In that sense the work – concerned with democracy, free speech and the polarised ideologies of Chinese and UK cultures – was even more successful for him than expected.Photograph: snapshot/Future Image/M James/Shutterstock
The graffiti responding to the work started appearing within hours, something that Wang said he welcomed. But it was the backlash online that alarmed him. He had a torrent of death threats on social media and his family received threatening calls at their home in China’s eastern Zhejiang province. “People making death threats and expressing objections through violent means, that’s exactly showing there’s a loophole in the system of democracy allowing totalitarian forces to exploit this loophole,” he said, speaking in Mandarin. “You cannot solve the problem of totalitarianism through totalitarian means.”
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