Monday, August 31, 2009

The Silent Protests of the Invisible Man

Meet Liu Bolin, the artist that could truly be called the Invisible Man for his talent. He travels around the world and takes pictures oh him mixed with the surroundings and it has nothing to do with photoshop.
Mr. Bolin paints his body in order to blend with the things that are behind him. He is 36 and he lives in Shandong, eastern China. The artist does everything so accurately that passers by don't even notice him until he starts moving. According to Liu, his idea was to illustrate the influence of city surroundings on people.
The artist said that his works bring the idea of not coping with the contemporary society. In addition, he finds it as a silent protest against the harassment of artists.
"Some people call me the invisible man, but for me it's what is not seen in a picture which is really what tells the story," Liu was quoted by Daily Mail as saying. He said that after he graduated school, he was desperate in finding a job and figured out that there was no place for him in the society and Liu began experiencing its darker side, where there are no social relations. He started feeling unnecessary. "From that time, my attitude turned from dependence into revolting against the system," said Liu.
After the Chinese authorities closed down his art studio, located in Beijing, where the artist worked until 2005, he was inadvertently highly motivated to carry on with his art. Although modern art registered a quick increase in popularity, especially in the capital of China, the government authorities presumably had another view. According to Liu, officials did not want modern artists to continue working and a lot of exhibitions had been shut down.
Mr. Bolin said: "The situation for artists in China is very difficult and the forced removal of the artist's studio is in fact my direct inspiration of this series of photographs, Hiding In The City." The talented artist received a lot of knowledge at the prestigious Sculpture Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts in China. To be able to get his works right, Liu spends about ten hours working on his pictures.
"I am standing, but there is a silent protest, the protest against the environment for the survival, the protest against the state. I wanted to photograph the reality of scenes of China's development today," explained Liu. link.....

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