Who Is Afraid of Ai Weiwei?

I posted last month when the Chinese government arrested artist and political critic Ai Weiwei. You can find in depth coverage of the situation surrounding Ai Weiwei - including reports on the detention of his associates and other critics of the government - here at The Guardian. You might also check out this trailer for a forthcoming Frontline documentary on Ai Weiwei.

It seems appropriate today to raise questions concerning Ai Weiwei's whereabouts. Why? Because today a set of his sculptures will "open" in Central Park. You can find a story here about Ai, his art, and his politics; npr broadcast it yesterday, using the New York City "opening" as a pretext. Rather than lift a picture of Ai or of his works, I thought it more appropriate to pilfer this image. What you have is a photograph of a projection that, according to news reports, an artist operating under the pseudonym Cpak Ming surreptitiously made late last week onto the exterior of the Barracks of the People's Liberation Army in the center of Hong Kong.* The projection depicts Ai and asks rhetorically "Who Is Afraid of Ai Weiwei?" Asked and answered?
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* The same image reportedly (look here too) also is being stenciled elsewhere in Hong Kong.

The Guardian Covers Graffiti

In Paris, "Princess Hijab" has been altering fashion adverts in the Metro - a process she apparently refers to as "hijab-ization." You can find her work here.

Meanwhile, across the Channel, the Brits can't still seem to make up their minds what to do about graffiti - some jurisdictions insisting that it be whitewashed, others trying to make it pay - dubbing it a tourist attraction! The sordid tale is here. What I want to know is this: what does making graffiti into a tourist attraction do to its putative outsider, quasi-disreputable, transgressive status?