A calligraphy artist has been thrown out of his professional body because his art is ‘inappropriate’.
It’s nothing to do with the words he chooses to write, or even his messy handwriting.
It’s more the fact that he invented ‘vagina calligraphy’.
Sun Ping, 63, set up an art show where young women held brushes in their intimate parts, dipped them in ink and then wrote with surprising dexterity while squatting over sheets of paper.
In addition, he persuaded women to spare strands of their pubic hair for him to make brush pens with, as you do.
But Chinese authorities weren’t having any of it, despite his stated intention to show the connection between art, the body and creativity.
The official national association of artists in China has expelled him, saying his art did not adhere to its ideological standards.
Sun, born in north-eastern Heilongjiang Province, has been displaying vaginal calligraphy for a decade in order to counter China’s ‘sexual taboos’ – but he got away with it until now.
He first joined the association in 1985 after graduating from the prestigious Guangdong Academy of Fine Arts.
But he says he doesn’t care about being barred as he is not ‘ideologically aligned’ with CAA.
He reportedly laughed after being told of the decision, saying: ‘My art may seem ugly and vulgar on the outside because we’re clouded by principles and conventions.
‘But there is also elegance, beauty, and inner value. It is art.’
He added: ‘Our culture is full of sexual taboos. If art is revered then why can’t sex be as well?’
‘People who look at Bu Zhi Dao and only see sex will immediately criticise it and therefore miss its deeper meaning and message.’
He made a good point: ‘A vagina is too often labelled as vulgar, but is where we all come from.’
Even before his infamous vagina calligraphy, Sun had focused on sexual themes.
One of his earlier works, entitled ‘Wet Dreams’, featured bedsheets stained by semen in what was called ‘an expression of the spirit’s frustration’.