"Gulf Labor Artists Walid Raad, Ashok Sukumaran Barred from U.A.E.", 14 May 2015

The United Arab Emirates has blocked the entry of two artists — both members of the labor activist coalition Gulf Labor — into the country after both have spoken out against the working conditions on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. The bars on New York-based artist Walid Raad and Mumbai-based artist Ashok Sukumaran, who were attempting to enter Emirates this week to visit the ongoing Sharjah Biennial and speak at a conference here, follow the U.A.E.’s apparent barring in March of New York University professor Andrew Ross, who has also criticized exploitative labor practices in the monarchy’s capital, the future site of outposts of the Guggenheim and Louvre museums...