The Tibetan artist Tashi Norbu has had a performance cancelled in Macau after pressure from Chinese authorities. Plans for the live painting work, which was supposed to occur in a public square to coincide with an opening of a new space for IaoHin Gallery, were shelved the day before it was due to take place in late February, after Beijing authorities said they would deport the artist should he enter the Chinese Special Administrative Region. State officials had previously warned the artist earlier that his work must not feature images of the Buddha or that he should not identify as Tibetan. ‘The Chinese official reasoned that whatever I display will be against the Chinese government’ the artist told Radio Free Asia. ‘The art gallery also advised me to leave [Hong Kong], because they could not bear responsibility if anything happened to me… [it] really frightened me’. The Netherlands-based artist left for India the same day.
10 March 2017
