Wikipedia

Cao Fei

Cao Fei (Chinese: 曹斐; born 1978[1]) is a Chinese multimedia artist born in Guangzhou. Her work, which includes video, performance, and digital media, examines the daily life of Chinese citizens born after the Cultural Revolution. Her work explores China's widespread internet culture as well as the borders between dreams and reality.[2] Cao has captured the rapid social and cultural transformation of contemporary China, highlighting the impact of foreign influences from the United States and Japan.[3]

Cao Fei (2024)

Some of her work is owned and displayed by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.[4] In 2021 she won the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.[5]

Career

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Early years

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Cao received her B.F.A. from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2001.[6] During her time there, Cao presented her first performance work, The Little Spark (1998), set in the affiliated Middle School of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. She then created her first film, Imbalance 257 (1999),[7] which displayed the current generation's penchant for rejecting deep-rooted Chinese traditions. One year later, Cao produced another video work, Chain Reaction (2000). She described the film as "a view of schizophrenia", analyzing "the power of evil in human nature."[8]

 
Still from Rabid Dogs (2002) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 2022

After graduating in 2001, Cao produced several notable works, including Rabid Dogs (2002) and Burners (2003). Rabid Dogs featured actors wearing costume makeup to look like dogs working and interacting in an office. The actors mimic office work while also behaving like dogs, sniffing one another, fighting, and attempting to become sexual. The artist suggested that the work was a metaphor for the modern office, saying "We are surely a miserable pack of dogs and we are willing to act as beasts that are locked in the trap of modernization."[9] The artist noted that Burners, a two-minute video focusing on the theme of human desire, "demonstrates the presence of privacy in soft porn and parodies the notion of male narcissism."[8] Cao focused on the modern paradox of China's rapid economic growth and social marginalization, producing the 2003 experimental documentary San Yuan Li (三元里) with Ou Ning. Shot in a rural village nestled in the industrial skyline of Guangzhou, the film examines the effects of development on traditional agrarian lifestyles.[10] The work was commissioned for and exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2013.[8]

In the photo series and video work COSPlayers (2004), Cao depicts Chinese teenagers cosplaying as anime characters in the industrial landscape of Guangzhou.[11][12][13][14] The Internet's power to create subcultures across China influenced the artist greatly.[8] In 2006, Cao produced her Hip Hop series (2006), an exposé of the underground influence of American hip hop in China.[2]

Whose Utopia (2006)

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The 2006 film Whose Utopia is one of Cao's most pivotal works. It explores the contrast between the everyday experiences and the aspirations of assembly line workers at a light bulb factory in the Pearl River Delta region of China.[15] The film opens with shifting views of an automated production line factory workers performing menial tasks. The artist interviews various workers, asking them their reasons for working at the plant.

These conversations then introduce a series of performances. Each performance is a chance for the individual to showcase their dreams, fantasies and talents apart from their everyday life. Cao Fei explains, the film is "not about exposé and not about political correctness." Rather, she aims to look at the lives of workers from multiple perspectives. For the worker, the performance is an opportunity to escape and reinvent oneself against the conformist backdrop of the factory. Cao likens the practice to creating an avatar.

By using montage, music and imagery, she presents a thorough understanding of contemporary Chinese society. In recent years, Chinese migrant workers have flocked to factories to take part in the hastily growing economy. Whose Utopia suggests a perpetual disparity between the confinement of an industrial lifestyle and the individual utopia.[16] This work is currently owned by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.[2][17]

Later work

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RMB City: A Second Life City Planning No. 7 (still) (2007) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 2022

Cao's art has extended to the virtual world in her three-part video i.Mirror (2007), where she documented the life of her avatar, China Tracy, and her romantic engagement with another avatar, Hug Yue in the virtual world Second Life. The videos feature China Tracy and Hug Yue in both realistic and fantastic locations, conversational excerpts, and the revelation of "First Life" identities.[2]

In 2007, Cao planned and developed RMB City, a virtual city in Second Life.[3] Launched in 2008, and open to the public since January 2009, RMB City is a platform for experimental creative activities, one in which Cao and her collaborators use different mediums to test the boundaries between virtual and physical existence.[3] Collaborators were for example Uli Sigg, who received a virtual city hall or Rem Koolhaas. Within this virtual city art institutions could organize online biennales or similar virtual gatherings.[18] RMB: A Second Life Planning By China Tracy was acquired by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for its contemporary art collection in 2008.[7]

From 2009 to 2015, Cao produced the works RMB City Opera (2009), East Wind (2011), Haze and Fog (2013), and Rumba II: Nomad (2015). In 2014, Cao presented a show and film entitled La Town at Lombard Fried Gallery. The show included the film and photographs from the set of the filming of La Town: The New Desert. The film depicts a world disrupted by industrialization. It begins in an elaborate, handmade, miniature city with a post-apocalyptic scene of a destroyed McDonald's restaurant on top of a small apartment building while figurines mill about in the rubble of wrecked cars and buildings.[19]

In 2018, Cao filmed Prison Architect in Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, formerly a colonial police and prison complex and now a non-profit art centre. The film was inspired by the novelist and curator Hu Fang's short story The Consolation of Imprisonment, which led her to contemplate "how we live with the notion of 'imprisonment'—imprisonment in a physical cell, 'non-prison' prisons, and a prison transformed into a cultural centre".[20]

In 2022, Cao was commissioned by the museum in progress to create a new work for the ongoing series of artistic interventions to the on-stage safety curtain at the Vienna State Opera. Cao's piece, The New Angel (2022), consists of a massive portrait of an animated avatar she designed.[21][22]

Exhibitions

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Cao has staged numerous solo shows at galleries and museums in China, the United States, and internationally. Cao's notable solo shows include COSplayers (2006), Para Site, Hong Kong;[23] Cao Fei: Whose Utopia? (2007), Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California;[24] Cao Fei: Utopia (2009), Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane;[25] Cao Fei (2016), MoMA PS1, New York;[26] and Cao Fei: Blueprints (2020), Serpentine Galleries, London.[27]

She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015); Biennale of Sydney (2006, 2010); Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2008); and the 15th Sharjah Biennial (2023).[28][4][29]

Other activities

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Cao was a member of the juries that selected Lubaina Himid as recipient of the Maria Lassnig Prize (2023)[30] and a group of ten artists—including Kantemir Balagov, Moor Mother and Dalton Paula—for Chanel's Next Prize (2023).[31]

Art market

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Sold works include RMB: A Second Life City Planning No.1 (2007) sold for $16,128 at Sotheby's Hong Kong in October 2015 and Silent Curse (+3 other works), sold for $24,192, also at Sotheby's Hong Kong in October 2009. Others include Murderess (+2 additional works from the Cosplayers series), sold for $17,741 in 2009 and Mirage, sold for $21,890 in 2007.[citation needed]

Awards

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Notable works in public collections

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References

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  1. ^ Great women artists. Phaidon Press. 2019. p. 85. ISBN 978-0714878775.
  2. ^ a b c d Heartney, Eleanor (2013). "Spellbound: Cao Fei". In Heartney, Eleanor (ed.). The Reckoning: Women Artists of the New Millennium. New York: Prestel Verlag. pp. 84–89. ISBN 978-3-7913-4759-2.
  3. ^ a b c "Cao Fei". Collection Online. Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  4. ^ a b "The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation". The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
  5. ^ a b "Artist who explores obsession with tech wins Deutsche Börse prize". The Guardian. 9 September 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  6. ^ "Cao Fei". Art21. PBS. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  7. ^ a b Kino, Carol (2 June 2011). "Chinese Life as Child's Play". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d "曹斐 Cao Fei". www.caofei.com. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  9. ^ Larkin, Daniel (11 August 2010). "Does Cao Fei's "Rabid Dogs" Age Well?". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  10. ^ "SAN YUAN LI, A Village Trapped Within A City". MediaNoche. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  11. ^ McCahill, Timothy (November 2007). "Beyond Tomorrow: Cao Fei". W Magazine.
  12. ^ Keisch, Martine (2011). "Cao Fei". Rethinking Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. pp. 94–96. ISBN 978-1-136-89030-7.
  13. ^ "COSPLayers and the Power of Costumes". Public Delivery.
  14. ^ "Cosplayers". Cao Fei. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  15. ^ "Cao Fei". Tate. October 2014.
  16. ^ "EPISODE: 'Fantasy'" PBS. 2009.
  17. ^ "Whose Utopia". Collection Online. Guggenheim Collection. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  18. ^ Obrist, Hans-Ulrich (2005). Mahjong. Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg. Bernhard Fibicher Matthias Frehner. pp. 227 fff. ISBN 3775716122.
  19. ^ "Enter Cao Fei's Dreamlike World at Lombard Freid Gallery". Artsy Editorial. October 2014.
  20. ^ "Cao Fei in Conversation | Ocula". ocula.com. 2019-03-04. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  21. ^ Nayeri, Farah (3 December 2022). "An Opera House Gives Contemporary Art a Major Role". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 December 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  22. ^ "Safety curtain". museum in progress. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  23. ^ "COSplayers". Para Site. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  24. ^ Mizota, Sharon (1 August 2007). "Cao Fei at Orange County Museum of Art". Artforum. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  25. ^ "Cao Fei: Utopia". IMA. Institute of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  26. ^ "Cao Fei". MoMA. Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 9 November 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  27. ^ "Cao Fei: Blueprints". Serpentine Galleries. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  28. ^ "Sharjah Biennial Names over 150 Artists for Long-Awaited Okwui Enwezor–Conceived 2023 Edition". 18 April 2022.
  29. ^ Guz, Savannah (5 June 2008). "Viewing China through Cao Fei's "Whose Utopia" at the Carnegie International". Pittsburgh City Paper. Archived from the original on 8 September 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  30. ^ Lubaina Himid – Maria Lassnig Prize 2023 Maria Lassnig Foundation, press release of 28 June 2023.
  31. ^ Daniel Cassady (27 March 2024), Chanel Awards $108,000 Prizes to Artists Dalton Paula, Ho Tzu Nyen, and More ARTnews.
  32. ^ "Cao Fei is driven to create a masterpiece[2]- Chinadaily.com.cn". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
  33. ^ Vogel, Carol (8 October 2009). "Finalists Announced for 2010 Hugo Boss Prize". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
  34. ^ "2010 Hugo Boss Art Prize winner announced". Wallpaper*. 8 October 2010. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
  35. ^ Rao, Priya (6 November 2010). "Hugo Boss Man of the Arts". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
  36. ^ "Chain Reaction". M+. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  37. ^ "Rabid Dogs". Asia Society. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  38. ^ "Hip Hop Guangzhou". Mori. Mori Art Museum. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  39. ^ "San Yuan Li". M+. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  40. ^ "COSplayers". AFMuseet. Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  41. ^ "COSplayers". MAMParis. Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  42. ^ "Whose Utopia". M+. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  43. ^ "Whose Utopia". MoMA. Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  44. ^ "Whose Utopia". Guggenheim. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Archived from the original on 25 November 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  45. ^ "Whose Utopia". Tate. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  46. ^ "I.Mirror By China Tracy (AKA: Cao Fei) Second Life Documentary Film". Asia Society. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022.
  47. ^ "i.Mirror by China Tracy (AKA: Cao Fei) Second Life Documentary Film". MoMA. Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  48. ^ "i.Mirror by China Tracy (AKA: Cao Fei)". WalkerArt. Walker Art Center. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  49. ^ "RMB City: A Second Life City Planning by China Tracy (aka: Cao Fei)". Guggenheim. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  50. ^ "RMB City". M+. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  51. ^ "Haze and Fog". M+. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  52. ^ "Haze and Fog". Centre Pompidou. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  53. ^ "La Town". University of Salford. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  54. ^ "Asia One". Guggenheim. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.

General references

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