Portfolio Review: Invisible Artist Liu Bolin Shares the Stories Behind "Hiding in the City"

Learn more about the Chinese artist who shook up the art world by disappearing in front of their eyes.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Beijing-based artist Liu Bolin's work explores the relationship between the grand scale of cultural development and the place of a single individual within it. Best known for his Hiding in the City series, he has been named the "Invisible Artist" after creating a project where he has disappeared into over 100 locations in New York, California, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. 

As he explains in his recent TED Talk, Hiding in the City began as performance art protesting the 2005 destruction of Suo Jia Village by the Chinese government. The largest congregation of artists in Asia, Suo Jia Village was Liu Bolin's workplace and home at the time of its destruction. In Hiding in the City No. 1 Liu Bolin camouflaged himself into the ruins of his destroyed studio space. 

Hiding in the City, in addition to his work in other mediums, comments on human beings' relationship to their environments (socially, culturally, ecologically, and politically). His works show how broader cultural development has been redefining the role of individuals in ways we need to examine and change before it's too late.

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Portfolio Review: Invisible Artist Liu Bolin Shares the Stories Behind His Work

All images courtesy Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Iron Fist

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Red Hand No. 9

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Hiding in the City No. 18 - Laid Off

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Hiding in the City No. 27 - Creeping Forward

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China Report No. 4

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Hiding in the City No. 93 - Supermarket

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Dragon Series

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Hiding in the City No. 95

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Ponte di Rialto

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Hiding in the City No. 97 - Yellow River

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Hiding in the City No. 99 - Three Goddesses

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Hiding in New York No. 3 - Magazine Rack

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Charger Series - Peony No. 2

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Hiding in New York No. 7 - Made in China

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Mask No. 9

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Burning Man

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Shadow II No. 3 - Traffic Lights

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