When I first saw these photos I was immediately captivated both by the ingenuity of this highly unusual technique as well as the simple but powerful message projected by this work. Born in 1973 in Shandong and a graduate of Shandong Art College and Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, Liu Bolin became popular for his mastery at the art of camouflaging himself against virtually any background. Liu works on a single photo for up to 10 hours at a time, to make sure he gets it just right, but he achieves the right effect, sometimes passers-by don’t even realize he is there until he moves.
While his camouflage artworks are really mind blowing, he’s here with a message: “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 … I am standing, but there is a silent protest, the protest against the environment for the survival, the protest against the state.”
