(In)visible bodies: Air pollution, performance art and China’s environmental governance

This article examines the presentation of visible and invisible bodies in performance art, exemplified by Praying for Blue Skies and Winter Solstice, which were responses to Beijing’s air pollution in the 2010s when the city was frequently enshrouded in severe smog. The former was staged in Beijing’s Temple of Heaven in 2014 by a group of 23 anonymous artists and the latter was created by Liu Bolin in December 2015 when seven camouflaged models danced in a withered grove on the eastern outskirts of Beijing. These two works took place during the period when Chai Jing’s Under the Dome, a 2015 multimedia documentary that investigated the causes of China’s air pollution, was censored; the (in)visibility of the bodies in both performances enabled the artists to voice their critical opinions. This article argues that visible and invisible bodies became a means of engaging in protest against the ineffectiveness of authoritarian environmentalism and performative governance in tackling air pollution. I start by explaining the concepts of authoritarian environmentalism and performative governance in China. I then discuss visible bodies, as presented in Praying for Blue Skies, in relation to Stephen Duncombe’s notion of activist art’s affect and effect. In contrast, invisible bodies, as performed in Winter Solstice, are examined within the context of Judith Butler’s theory of performativity. Finally, I explore Anthony Orum and Zachary Neal’s investigations into public spaces as sites of resistance for exposing the gaps between the government’s air pollution prevention plan and the reality of the lack of law enforcement.