Cheeky Chinese artist critiques society with nudity

Guangzhou

SETTING up a camera in a public place, Ou Zhihang hastily removes his clothes, then with just one bottom-exposing press-up - his work is done.

The artist has taken more than 700 photos capturing his nude exercises on streets in China and sometimes abroad - a body of work unmatched in the contemporary art world. But the locations he chooses - sites of government abuses, protests and disaster - show there is more to his work than just cheek. "My aim isn't to get people to look at my press-ups, but to use a method to get society to think," said the 46-year-old, clothed in a white polo shirt and jeans for a dim-sum lunch in his hometown of Guangzhou.