Disappearing Act: Liu Bolin's 'Hiding In The City'

Can You Spot The Artist In These Pictures?

Challenging the audience to find him as he blends in to the background of each piece, Liu Bolin’s Hiding in the City is like Where’s Wally, minus the garish stripes, wooly hat and specs.

It’s not the first time we've seen artists get so stuck into their work - Cecilia Paredes and Levi Van Veluw instantly spring to mind - but what makes Bolin’s work stand out (if not him) is his motivation.

Hiding in the City is a comment on the status of artists in China and was sparked by the demolition of Suojia Village in 2005, which had the largest population of artists in the country.

I started to do this series, against the atrocity of the government. I wanted to use my works to show that the state of the artists in society and their living places had not been protected.

"Every one of my works are in question of my existence,” he told The Huffington Post.

The exhibition explores a range of settings from fashion designers’ workshops to supermarkets.

“I found that the social forms of our existence contain many of the negativities of human characteristics and the entirety of mankind face similar issues and problems regarding life and ideology.

Normally I'm the figure in my photo, but at the same time, it could be any one of us. I expose the most private thinking within everyone.”

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