Xu Bing‘s 550,000 “First Class” brand cigarettes, adhesive, carpet, Tobacco Project series first began at Duke University in 1999. Made from half a million cigarettes and weighing 440 pounds, this mock tiger skin rug is the creation of artist Xu Bing. Currently on exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the tobacco artwork is meant to highlight global trade, packaging and how people are seduced into deadly smoking habits. (via telegraph.co.uk)