Liu Bolin: The Heroic Apparition, Scream London

The Chinese artist Liu Bolin has burst to fame in recent years and it's mainly been due to one compelling idea – standing in front of a location while a team of assistants painted him, chameleon-like, as if he had become part of the background.

These photographs, known as the Hiding in the City series, first came into being in 2005. Now, in his first major UK show, Bolin has produced a Hiding in London series which premieres this Spring at the Scream gallery - run by Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood's son Jamie - in London's up-and-coming art-zone Fitzrovia. It'll also be the subject of a book to be published in 2015. 

Bolin calls the end result 'performances', as this is how they started life in 2005 in Beijing. He has now also done Paris, New York and other cities, although this is his first time in London - and while the locations of Bolin's hiding places have not yet revealed, they're already causing excitement. Because these images are such a visual riddle, they have become a great hit on social media, with Bolin often billed as the ‘invisible man’ - indeed, viewers often think his pictures were photoshopped or otherwise manipulated (they aren’t). 

But while there is a sensational aspect to the series, the 'Hiding in the City' series also brings up all kinds of resonances: of the desire for anonymity in the city, of the need for freedom, and also as a depiction of powerlessness. From Bolin's own perspective, they began with a specific political dimension, drawing inspiration from the destruction of the Suo Jia Cun district in Beijing, the home of his studio and victim of a government demolition order in 2005. Thus, he said, the Hiding series “was a silent protest against the persecution of artists”. 

Despite his camouflage the spotlight is on Bolin as an artist with a global reputation, not just because of 'Hiding in the City" but also in other words such as 'Shadow', which saw him lie on surfaces during downpours, then photograph his imprint, much like a tent leaves its own shape on grass. Again, 'Shadow' made comment on the ephemerality of the human presence in the city, and carries a similar poignancy to Hiding in the City. He's in demand now. having even created the cover art for Bon Jovi's 2013 album What About Now and an effigy of Barack Obama during the US president's visit to China. Come to Fitzrovia, then, and see if you can spot the world's most visible invisible man. 

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