Art with a punch: China's Liu Bolin

Chinese artist Liu Bolin standing beside one piece of his giant fist sculpture at a steel foundry in Tangshan, China. -AFP

TANGSHAN, China: Emerging from the acrid fumes at a steelworks, artist Liu Bolin inspects the progress of his latest work - a giant iron fist, poised to punch a hole through modern China.

Weighing more than seven tonnes and 3.6 metres (12 feet) tall, the sculpture will go on show in Paris later this month, as Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the country.