Graffiti deserves the kudos, its come a long way: out from the unanimous shunned disapproval for its illegality and into the limelight by way of the interviews and book deals of fame, not to mention the fortune provided by rich enthusiastic collectors and aforementioned corporations looking for new designs to shlap on their shlocky everyman products for the grand continuation of maintaining consumerist states.
Its seems as though that grafitti has been domesticated, and is more of a house pet than the predator it once was, a viewpoint I've mentioned before (http://tiny.cc/8jsj6), but recently in China there has been a spate of political graffiti calling for the release of Ai Weiwei. It seems it must be annoying the right people in power because activists are being arrested for stenciling.
Ai Weiwei was arrested on April 3 for unexplained 'economic crimes'. The world not only noticed because of Ai Weiwei's status on the international arts platform, but also because at the time he had a major work on display, 'Sunflower Seeds', at the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in the UK as a part of the The Unilever Series.
His arrest has sparked a petition headed by the directors of the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Tate. I personally urge everyone to sign it: http://www.change.org/petitions/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei.
