Sculpture made from byproduct of liposuction is stranded in Japan
Artists tend to be a troubled lot, and Peng Yu, a 28-year-old from Beijing, is no exception. What's troubling her at the moment is fat - more than a tonne of it stacked into a four-metre pillar.
The giant lump of human fat is Peng's artistic pride and joy. Entitled Civilisation Pillar, she built it with her husband, Sun Yuan, two years ago. They exhibited the work in Japan, where she said people loved it after the initial shock.
'They all said: 'How come we never thought of making art like that?'' she said.
Now Peng wants to take the pillar back from Japan to China, but the prohibitive freight costs mean it must stay where it is until she finds a sponsor.
The fat, which Peng spent two years collecting from cosmetic surgeries in Beijing, is the product of about 500 liposuctions.
It makes a strong statement on society, the artist says. 'The pillar says that it is surplus riches that support modern art and modern civilisation. It is all about the surplus fat. There are far more obese people in rich countries than in poverty-stricken ones.'