The world famous Banksy has returned to New York unexpectedly, with new pieces in Brooklyn and Manhattan. His latest work comes fives years after the anonymous street-artist did a one month residency in October 2013, putting up art projects around the city.
On Wednesday, March 14th, he debuted a rat running on the inner circumference of a clock above a closed former bank building on 14th Street and 6th Avenue. The Instagram account associated with the artist posted a picture of it that afternoon.
The next day a new mural was unveiled in the Lower East Side to support the jailed Kurdish artist Zehra Dogan, who is currently serving a near three year in prison sentence for a painting of the demolished Turkish town Nusaybin, which was considered terrorist propaganda.
Located on Houston Street and Bowery, the 70 foot wall consists of black hash marks, which represent jail cell bars and count the number of days that Dogan has spent in prison. Her left hand grips a bar that doubles as a pencil. “Free Zehra Dogan” is written in the bottom right corner as she still has 18 months left to serve. The political statement was a collaboration with the graffiti artist Borf, who has also spent time in jail for his work.
News surfaced Friday that Banksy had also tagged a few buildings in Brooklyn.
Images by Just A Spectator
About Zehra Dogan
Zehra Doğan is a ethnic Kurdish painter and journalist from Diyarbakır, Turkey. She is best known as the editor of Jinha, a feminist Kurdish news agency reporting news in the Kurdish language with a staff consisting entirely of women. Since February 2016 Doğan has been living and reporting in Nusaybin, a Turkish city located on the Syrian border.
In addition to being an award-winning journalist, Zehra Doğan is a popular painter. Her work ranges from colorful, flowing depictions of traditional Kurdish life to dark, striking political scenes. On July 21, 2016 she was arrested while at a café in Nusaybin.
At a court hearing, multiple witnesses testified that Doğan was a member of an illegal organization, though not one witness knew her by name. An anonymous witness claimed “There was… a short lady with a nose ring… I do not know the individual’s identity; she is probably a journalist.” The prosecution’s lawyers used Doğan’s paintings and social media posts as evidence against her. Doğan testified that all the crimes she is accused of are journalistic activities, for which she is registered with the state and a member of the Union of Journalists of Turkey.
That trial ended with no sentencing, but Zehra remained in prison until being released December 9, 2016. Her trial continued on March 2, 2017, where she was acquitted of the charge of Illegal Organization Membership, but was sentenced to 2 years, 9 months and 22 days for posting a painting to social media.
The painting is of destruction in the Kurdish town of Nusaybin, an artistic rendering of a photo taken by state officials.
The imprisonment of Zehra Doğan is unconstitutional, violating articles 26 and 28 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, which guarantee freedom of expression and a free press, respectively. Doğan’s imprisonment additionally violates globally recognized norms protecting the right to freedom of expression in agreements such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Turkey is a party. As per Article 90 of the Constitution, International agreements duly put into effect have the force of law.
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