Look closely at this photograph above. Did you notice the man standing in front of the bulldozer's tire or did he simply blend in with the background like a chameleon? This is Chinese artist Liu Bolin, also known as the "Invisible Man." He carefully chooses an image in which he wants to be "disappeared" and then stands there as still as possible, sometimes for hours at a time, while his assistants paint the design onto his military fatigues. Many people passing by don't even notice him until he moves. Before beginning the actual painting Bolin must digitally impose a portrait of himself on an image of the scene to carefully plan what will need to be painted onto his clothes.
According to Bolin, his motivation for these works is deeper than just creating an image. He is making a silent statement about his government, who shut down his studio in 2005 and is known for persecuting artists, and the way in which he sees his role in society. In Bolin's words, "I choose to camouflage my body into the environment so that people will pay more attention to the background's social property by erasing the meaning of my body as an individual."
Bolin's work struck me because of its uniqueness and quiet strength. Suddenly the emphasis has been placed on the background, and the viewer finds himself/herself focusing on details that might otherwise get overlooked. The amount of detail and patience necessary to pull off each work is amazing. I cannot imagine standing completely still for hours at a time. Bolin's work is also interesting to me because it is a synthesis of several different artistic mediums. It's part visual, part performance, and part photography.
Here is a short video about Bolin.
If the "art" here is in the creation of the trompe l'oeil" effect, who is the real artist, the assistants or Bolin? And does the "message" he wants to convey count more than the artistic "object" that he creates, especially since it is so ephemeral?
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