The Olympic battle over freedom of expression is heating up in Vancouver. The city has ordered a Downtown Eastside gallery to remove a mural that is critical of the upcoming Olympic games. The criminalized mural depicts a set of black Olympics rings, four of which have sad faces and one outcast sporting a smile.
The Crying Room gallery has been displaying murals on its exterior walls for a decade, and they say never before have they been asked to remove one. “It was pretty clear to me that it was because of the context of the work,” Colleen Heslin, who runs the gallery, told the Globe and Mail.
Unsurprisingly, the city of Vancouver denies any political motive behind the crackdown, and attributes the forced removal to a simple graffiti bylaw.
Photo: Jay Black
