An art exhibit critical of the Chinese government will not be taken down from the lobby of a prominent state office building this week after all.
Georgia Building Authority officials had a change of heart after the exhibit’s sponsors asked them to leave the paintings up until July 5, the previously agreed-upon finish date.
The paintings greet visitors of the James H. “Sloppy” Floyd Building near the state Capitol with images of torture, murder and organ harvesting. Members of the Falun Gong movement, a spiritual practice from the Buddha school, said that an early exit from the building would have been expensive.
“We already made effort to continue the exhibition at another location at the end of the two-month period,” said Frank Xie, in an email obtained through open records by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “An early termination will incur great amount of expenses to our non-profit organization.”
The exhibit began on May 2, after an application from the Falun Gong Association of Atlanta was accepted.
It was approved at a time when Georgia continues to court investment and business from China, the state’s second-largest export market. The Chinese government outlawed Falun Gong practices in 1999, calling it a “cult.”
A GBA official told Xie on Tuesday that the paintings would have to be taken down by the end of the day.
“We are completing construction and have parties interested in displaying their items,” wrote Kashara Blake-Parks, an administrative operations specialist.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported on the exhibit’s planned removal that afternoon, five days after reaching out to the GBA for comment about the exhibit.
Xie emailed the GBA, urging them to allow the exhibit to continue. He said GBA Executive Director Steve Stancil called him to straighten things out soon after.
“I’m very glad that the issue is resolved,” Xie said. “The people of Georgia will be able to see this wonderful exhibit.”
While the exhibit will remain, there was at least one state employee who believed that it shouldn’t be there.
Laynea Allen, a program coordinator for the Human Resources Administration, complained about the paintings being housed in the same building as her department.
“They’re like the Scientology of China,” Allen wrote in an email to the GBA. “I’ve had to ask them to leave when I saw them proselytizing at my place of business at a previous job, and they are persistent, like cockroaches.”
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