Beijing-based performance artist He Yunchang has divided opinion with his one of his works, which saw him slice open his torso and remove one of his ribs in front of a live audience.
(Although the story is only just now being circulated widely on the web, several sources say the procedure was performed as early as August 2008, when China famously opened its doors to the world with the Beijing Olympics.)
Dubbed 'One-Meter Democracy', He performed the procedure himself under the supervision of a doctor without any anaesthetic.
Fittingly, the performance was put to a "pseudo-democratic voting procedure", according to blogger and art consultant Melanie Wang, which saw 12 of twenty-five voters vote in favour, while ten voted against and three abstained from the process.
Following the audience's approval, He stripped naked and climbed onto a bed covered in white sheets, before performing the long incision to remove the 23cm (9 inch) rib while being filmed on camera.
According to He, the bloody act was conceived to highlight the "tension between the individual and the state" in China.
"I feel China is a very complex society, one in which it is important to use your body and your intellect so you can stop and face its reality. Highlighting the body in this way, as separate, is also important because, historically Chinese people have not endowed the physical body with value, rather they have valued the spirit of the Chinese people, as a collective."
The performance artist has previously attracted attention for his acts of extreme endurance, which have included casting himself inside concrete for 24 hours, and running into trouble with the NYPD when he tried to organise a game of naked mahjong in the Big Apple.
While He has received his fair share of detractors, he's also garnered praise in the art world, with Sydney gallery founder Judith Neilson calling him an "alchemist of pain".
China's most famous artist Ai Weiwei is also a friend and neighbour of He, whose work "always has a mix of play, personal history, political message and poetic romance", Ai said.
"Everything that is happening in China today, with development, old structures and Communist doctrines, are all stuck together," Ai continued.
He's work "is trying to pull life out of the ruins".
[Image via He Yunchang]
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