Free Liu Xia, Free Pussy Riot (Her Silent Strength)

for a while I’ve tagged all my posts with “Free Liu Xia” and “Free Pussy Riot”. Pussy Riot doesn’t need any introduction. they’ve been jailed by the Putin-regime for insulting the Russian state and the Orthodox church. the real insult is that this could happen in Europe in the 21st century.

Liu Xia is the wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiabo. Xia is a Chinese poet, painter and photographer whose only crime is being married to Liu Xiabo. Xiabo is currently serving an 11 year prison sentence for calling for multiparty elections in China. this is his fourth imprisonment. his wife, Liu Xia, is being held under house arrest and has no means of communicating with the outside world. she has, as far as I know, never seen a judge or been convicted of anything. her only crime is being married to Liu Xiabo.

her work “The Silent Strength of Liu Xia” is a collection of 25 black and white photographs she produced between 1996 and 1999 while her husband served his second labor camp sentence. the collection has been shown once at Columbia University.

[edit: some of the images in Liu Xia's "Silent Strength"-series can be seen here. thanks to Zamoysky for the link. monday, 5th November 2012.]