Badiucao calls himself a “Chinese Aussie artist hunted by the Chinese Government”. It is easy to see why he says that.

Born in Shanghai, Badiucao was training to be a lawyer when he first became a convert to activism.

He was watching a pirated Taiwanese film with friends and, unbeknown to them, the film had the Tiananmen documentary The Gate of Heavenly Peace spliced into it and the die was cast.

Later, recalling the incident to AFP, he said, "It was three hours, everybody just sat there and the room was completely dark, nobody even got up to turn on a light.”

None of them had ever heard of the Tiananmen Square incident or its horrific conclusion thanks to Chinese censorship.

He emigrated to Australia in 2009, abandoning his plan to become a lawyer. After his arrival, he worked as a kindergarten teacher while he studied for a master’s degree in education. He began using his artistic talent sin his spare time and, in 2011, starting drawing political cartoon, becoming a nagging thorn in the CCP’s side.

Badiucao had no formal art training in China but comes from a long line of creatives - his grandfather and great uncle were filmmakers in China who paid for their work with their lives in the 1950s.

Badiucao’s art is typified by the clever reworking of Communist propaganda imagery, subverting it to criticise the CCP and using the bold red and yellow of the Chinese flag. His work uses dark humour and clever word-play to skewer China’s leaders.

Badiucao’s illustration for the cover of the spring 2021 issue of Index on Censorship magazine is typical of his work – striking and with a strong message to those who gaze upon it, reminding us of the West’s complicity in China’s rise to power.

Tatiana Zelenskaya was born and grew up in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan and studied art at the National Academy of Arts of the Kyrgyz Republic. She majored in industrial graphics, but prefers to work in a more creative direction: illustration, animations, posters and contemporary art. Zelenskaya’s work regularly covers themes such as feminism, violence and human rights and in March 2020, she was arrested for taking part in a women’s rights protest in the country.
She has beenshortlisted for an Index 2021 Freedom of Expression Award.

Wilson Borja (wilsonborja.com) was born and raised in Bogotá. He studied graphic design and has worked in illustration and animation.

His recent work has been inspired by the African diaspora and migration and his last exhibition pre-Covid at Bogotà’s African Diaspora Gallery in 2019 was focused on this topic.

Borja likes to mix digital and physical elements in his work. This issue’s illustration includes plant species Borja collected from the Pacific coast of Colombia, where most of the population is of African descent.

Charlotte Crawford (www.theautisticartist.com), from Berkshire in the UK, rediscovered her love for art during Covid. “I had no job and my mental health was at a very low point,” she said. After ending up in hospital, she was diagnosed as autistic aged 21.

She says, “There is a lack of knowledge and understanding when it comes to autism. More and more people are aware of the struggles autistic people face on a day-to-day basis but there is still a long way to go.”

“‘Powerful’ is a mixed media artwork. I created this using minimal lines and bold blocks of colour. The repetitive lines were intended to mimic a fingerprint. I see links between the lines in the art and the natural lines in the centre of tree trunks.”

Long-Armed People, oil on canvas, is a co-created work by artists Lumli Lumlong who were forced to leave their home in Hong Kong for the UK in 2021.

The left side is painted by husband, Lumlong, and the right is painted by wife, Lumli.

The artists said of the work: “When you think you’ve left your homeland and escaped it, it reappears. When you believe you’re sitting safely at home, it’s watching you. When transnational repression has penetrated deep into your bones, your only option is to overcome fear and rise to resist it.”

Their artwork typically exposes social realities and has been exhibited, and collected, around the world. For them reality is more scary than their art and compassion is central in fighting repression.

Irina Potapenko is from Odessa. She says, “For many years I have been illustrating books for children and adults and painting watercolours. When the war started, I began to paint it too as I wanted to tell people all over the world about it. Bombs and rockets destroy our cities, forcing me and my husband to hide in the basement with our pets. Painting helps me maintain mental strength. With this illustration, I wanted to show that cities get ruined but art is eternal.”

Aastha Sahdev, who has designed our cover, is a Delhi-based visual artist. She has been crafting art since the age of five when she won a national painting competition. Her artistic journey has since been shaped by her studies in English literature, art history, and motion graphics design, blending pop culture and traditional Indian elements to offer unique social commentary.

Inspired by Mughal miniatures, Rajasthani art and traditional paintings, her style combines historic references with modern flair. Aastha’s characters embody the elegance, grace and stylisation of Bani Thani by Nihal Chand, a work she deeply admires. Drawing inspiration from real women and conversations, her art reacts to the world around her, transforming themes and ideas into vibrant, thought-provoking pieces.

The Big Fat Bao is an illustrator whose work focuses on the intersection of caste, gender and Indian visual design. Their research highlights the casteist roots of Indian design, while their illustrations challenge Hinduism/Brahmanism. Bao’s posts on Instagram have been repeatedly taken down and their account “severely shadowbanned”.

The cover depicts how fascism in India has taken control of social media apps, torn down the values of peace and democracy by attacking caste minorities, denied access to education to Muslim students by banning them from wearing the hijab in academicl institutions and using JCB machines to demolish the houses of religious and caste minorities.