Julian Assange announced on Monday that he will be leaving the Ecuadorean Embassy in London shortly, according to reports by the New York Times among others. The Wikileaks founder is said to be suffering from a heart arrhythmia and severely high blood pressure as well as an unnamed lung condition, according to Sky News.
However, he reportedly denied that his medical condition was the motive for leaving the embassy. He faces extradition to Sweden based on alleged sexual misconduct and has feared being extradited to the US as well for the wide swath of classified documents and cables Wikileaks began publishing in 2010. The US has not pursued the Wikileaks founder’s extradition thus far. Assange previously asserted that he would only leave the embassy on the condition that the UK provide him safe passage.
The terms of Assange’s departure remain unclear, but the art world will no doubt be abuzz with excitement for possible Assange collaborations in the near future, should he be allowed to walk free. (Chicks on Speed already snagged him for a cameo on their latest record.) In the mean time, Internet artists of all stripes have taken to the so-called Julian Assange Coloring Book to serve up their own take on the ever-controversial figure.
Highlights posted in the site’s gallery include Assange in a Marilyn-esque Warhol portrait, numerous images featuring him as prominent figures—both real and fictional—like Che Guevara, the Pope, David Bowie, Mickey Mouse, Jackie Chan, Ronald McDonald, and the Riddler.
Amateur artists wanting to try their hand at coloring Assange can chose from templates ranging from “What Julian got for Christmas,” which features a jolly, sunglasses-wearing Santa delivering a book to the Wikileaks head, to “Julian Gagged,” which sees a piece of American flag duct tape placed over his mouth.