Not another brick in the wall: How a Beijing artist explained China's pollution problem

With China being the top polluter along with the US in emission of green house gases, its city Beijing was being shrouded with smog. This has led to many Beijing residents staying indoors to stay away from the pollution. However, one man with a vacuum cleaner has braved the toxic smog for over 100 days to make a point about the hazardous content in the air, reports Quartz.

'Nut Brother', a performance artist is using industrial-strength vacuum to collect the dust in the air to make it into a brick. His project finished on November 30th, on the 100th day of his project. He mixed the dust with clay and took it to a brick factory to make a brick which will finish in a few days.

He came up with this idea in 2013 having lived in Beijing for years. The 34-year-old artist wanted to people to know about the issue of environmental protection and improve the understanding “relationship between human and nature.

The Shenzen resident said that he collected the air from Beijing’s hutongs to the Tiananmen Square to the Bird’s Nest national stadium to the headquarters of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. He would post the date, weather, the area and a photo of him collecting the dust on Sina Weibo account.

While his work gained attention, some have chosen to discredit it. Some wondered whether the brick was really made of the smog. 

Nut Brother said that he  bagged a mixture of 'dust and smog' weighing 100 grams. This will be mixed with clay to make the brick. He added that his brick will not weigh like other bricks but is meant to be a symbol. 

He plans to give the brick to a construction site so it becomes part of a concrete jungle just as "putting a drop of water in the ocean.”