The choking smog has stirred an outcry from the public. And many are calling for change. One Chinese artist is trying raise awareness of the dangers of smog, through a very graphic display.

For four hours every day, 100 days at Beijing's various landmarks. Wang Renzheng would hold up an industrial vacuum cleaner, sucking in polluted air.

The artist hopes his performance art, dubbed as the "Dust Project", can highlight the issue of air pollution to the Chinese public.

"What I do is performance art and it won't change anything immediately. It won't change the air pollution situation even if I bring 100 or 1000 people with vacuum cleaners. But I want to magnify the air pollution problem so people cannot ignore it, and will then take actions to change it. People can reduce the use of cars and take public transportation, or the government can take more effective measures to tackle the problem," Wang said.

The project's first phase ended on Tuesday amid this year's worst pollution spell in Beijing. Media reports of Wang's stunt went viral this week. And the 100 grams of pollutants — collected from 400 hours of vacuuming — are being compressed into a regular-sized brick.

A graphic reminder of the uphill environmental battle China faces.

"I think people just take the air pollution problem for granted and have become indifferent to the problem, and they don't feel it is urgent to take actions to change it…" Wang said.

A sober reminder as Wang says "When all the resources on planet earth run out, we too will become dust. "