Invisibility Achieved

If you're familiar with Harry Potter, you know about the cloak of invisibility (and if you're not familiar with Harry Potter, what exactly did you do to be shot into deep space all by your lonesome?). Science has also been making a stab at the magical jacket that erases what it covers, and advances have been reported. But one artist has been practicing the fine art of disappearing for years now, and his achievements are not only successful, they're magically beautiful and filled with poignant protest.

His name is Liu Bolin, and he's often referred to as the Invisible Man. What he does, in effect, is paint himself into the scenery. Here's a great collection of Bolin shots. Here's another.

Bolin was trained at one of China's premier art schools, but found himself homeless shortly thereafter when the Chinese government, in preparation for the Olympics, bulldozed the buildings of Suojiacun, an artist village east of Beijing. In protest, Bolin stood among the rubble and had his friends paint his whole body, camouflaging him into the wreckage. An art form was born.

Bolin's work is a shining example of how art can be both defiance and submission, expression and silence, appearance and disappearance. And in the way he employs these contrasts to blend in while sticking out, we can all learn a valuable lesson about how we make our mark on the world.

Photo via V1kram.posterous.com.