Tobacco and art

(Washington Post) Begun in 2000 when Chinese-born Xu Bing was artist in residence at Duke University, the tobacco project mixes cigarettes, advertising, brand names, old books, paychecks and other memorabilia into a highly unusual exhibition.
One work involves 440,000 cigarettes fashioned into the form a 40-foot-long floor rug shaped like a tiger. A wall is covered with old tobacco advertisements. Another curiosity is a 50-foot-long reproduction of a Zhang Zeduan painting from the 10th century, “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” that has an extra-long cigarette that will be burned down its center. Continued