Over the course of 100 days Chinese artist Wang Renzheng held up the suction head of an industrial vacuum cleaner for four hours to suck in polluted air at Beijing's various landmark sites.
The artist hopes his performance piece, dubbed the , can highlight the issue of air pollution to the Chinese public.
"I want to magnify the air pollution problem so people cannot ignore it," Wang said.
The project's first phase ended this week amid this year's worst pollution spell in Beijing.
Artist Brother Nut working on his Dust Project Source: QQ
Reports of Wang's performance art went viral with the news that the dust and pollutants that he collected from 400 hours of vacuuming was being made into a regular-sized brick.
Wang says the 100 grams of air dust he had collected was added into a brick at a factory in the northern city of Tangshan.
The pollution spike is a reminder of China's severe environmental challenges as President Xi Jinping joins other world leaders at the Paris climate conference.
China's cities are among the world's dirtiest after 30 years of explosive economic growth that led to construction of hundreds of coal-fired power plants and the spread of automobile ownership.
