Artist poses naked with skeleton of own DAD while taking part in China’s national Tomb Sweeping Day
Siyuan Zhuji posted the controversial photographs to mark the Qingming Festival
A NAKED artist has caused outrage after stripping off next to his dead dad’s skeleton for a bizarre social media stunt.
Siyuan Zhuji, 33, posted the controversial photographs on the art website Artand to mark Qingming Festival, otherwise known as Tomb-Sweeping Day.
The Chinese artist thought he was honouring a departed relative, as expected during the festival, however web users were outraged by the artist’s inappropriate images.
According to reports, the remains were being reburied after the original burial site was damaged and Zhuji took the opportunity to pose with his dad’s bones.
His father - who has not been named - died more than 30 years ago when Zhuji was still a young child.
A defiant Zhuji said: “I did this for art. Real art should not be afraid of facing the public or being out in the world.”
Zhuji said that a cemetery caretaker helped him to arrange his father’s bones while his wife took the photos.
The Chinese artist then stripped off and posed naked next to the skeleton on a rug.
When he was asked what his mother thought about the incident, Zhuji replied: “She said if the caretaker didn’t have a problem with it, then she didn’t as well. She is supportive of my work.”
Siyuan explained that his father died of liver cancer when he was three years old and he did not have many memories of him.
He said: “I was also a little selfish, I wanted to realise a dream of mine – to take a photo with my father’s bones.”
After a social media outcry, the artist’s Weibo account was reportedly taken down.
One poster wrote: “No morals! If you want to take photos with your father, use his old photos and digitally edit it to combine with your own!”
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Another user added: “Why would you expose your father’s remains like that? Maybe you wanted to fulfil your own selfish desires or you want to go viral?”
Ancestral worship remains a strong tradition in China, with families paying respects and cleaning the graves of their ancestors during the annual Ching Ming festival.
There are many superstitions and rules surrounding the treatment of remains and tombs of family members.
