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Featured Case: Self Portrait of a Martyr Date: 2002 Region: North America Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion Religious Medium: Painting Artist: Cong Lu, "Lucong" Confronting Bodies: Students at the Art Students League of Denver (ASLD) Date of Action: November 14, 2002 Location: Denver, Colorado, USA Description of Artwork: Self Portrait of a Martyr is a depiction of a young Asian man lifting his shirt up revealing his torso strapped with explosives, and a pistol tucked into his waistband. The Incident: After Lucong's receipt of a Student Best of Show award his paintings was hung in the main lobby of the ASLD. Shortly thereafter, several students complained about the painting, calling it anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian. These students wanted the painting moved to a less prominent spot in the school. Results of Incident: The artist's right to self-expression and the artworks placement received the full support of the executive director of the ALSD, the faculty and the board of directors. The painting remained in its location. Source: NCAC, from an article in the RockyMountainNews.com What is Censorpedia? Censorpedia is a crowdsourced online database of censorship cases within the arts and in culture. It is aimed at those researching censorship, at activists working for freedom of expression and at artists and other cultural producers whose expression has been subject to censorship or attempted censorship. Censorpedia documents censorship incidents by providing the who, what, when, where and why. By providing a repository of information about what is vulnerable to censorship and about the strategies and tactics that have defeated previous’ censorship attempts, Censorpedia aids the fight for free expression. Researchers can search for a specific case, year or keyword using the search box, as well as browse by medium, by grounds for censorship, or explore a random case. Activists can search for ongoing cases or contribute a case that is ongoing or recently resolved. Artists and cultural producers are similarly invited to add cases they are directly involved with or are familiar with first hand. Censorpedia builds on the landmark 1994 art project The File Room, initiated by Muntadas. For more information about censorship visit our Annotated Bibliography Feel free to: add a case Browse censorship cases by: medium grounds for censorship region all cases ongoing cases random case Censorpedia Terms of Use