Amnesty International Campaign Uses 'Surreal Images' To Highlight Rights (PHOTOS)

LOOK: Artist Peels Back Skin To Highlight Rights And Empowerment

Artist Hikaru Cho uses her body painting expertise to create incredible realistic effects which make it appear her models' skin is peeled back, in an effort to highlight rights and empowerment.

Her "hyper-real" artworks, in which she creates images using the body as a canvas became an internet sensation last year, making it look as though she has stripped back the surface to reveal hidden details within.

Now the Tokyo-based student has been commissioned by Amnesty International to prepare new designs for its My Body My Rights campaign, which emphasises sexual and reproductive rights.

The two-year campaign will launch with a series of Hikaru's striking and sometimes surreal images, all painted directly onto the body of participating models to create a lifelike 3D effect.

Cho - a Chinese-born artist who studies visual communication and design in Japan - has depicted a range of issues.

The 20-year-old, who creates her works under the name Choo-San, illustrated the right to contraception and sexual health by depicting a strip of pills embedded in an arm, and the right to choose a partner by painting a face to show what appears to be two men kissing.

In one she depicts the right to choose when you have children with a keyhole in a model's stomach and in another she highlights the right to live without sexual violence by showing a face emerging from a cracked shell, representing the emotional scars.

Cho said: "I hope my art can help young people across the world start a conversation about those rights."

Madhu Malhotra, director of Amnesty International's gender, sexuality and identity programme, said: "'We should all be able to enjoy the right to make decisions about our own health, body, sexual life and identity without fear, coercion or discrimination.

"Many of the images are deliberately left open to interpretation - we wanted to avoid being too literal and encourage debate amongst a younger audience."

The right to live without sexual violence is illustrated by a face emerging from a cracked shell, representing the emotional scars

The right to contraception and sexual health is depicted with a strip of pills embedded in an arm

The right to choose a partner is depicted by a face showing what appears to be two men kissing

In one she depicts the right to choose when you have children with a keyhole in a model's stomach

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