Cao Fei: My City Is Yours at Art Gallery of NSW

Do we have digital souls? What do factory workers dream of? And, in an era of automation, how is love changing? These are some of the questions Beijing-based artist Cao Fei (pronounced “tsow fay”) has explored throughout her two-decade career. Now the internationally acclaimed artist brings these questions and more to the Art Gallery of NSW in the exhibition Cao Fei: My City Is Yours (曹斐: 欢迎登陆).

Voted as one of the world’s 10 most influential artists by Art Review in 2023, Fei uses humour and sharp social commentary to document China’s rapid urbanisation; globalisation; and digital phenomena like gaming technologies, VR, Y2K and the metaverse.

My City Is Yours is the largest presentation of Fei’s multimedia pieces shown in Australia to date, featuring many of her most well-known films, photographs and large-scale installations alongside two new commissions.

The exhibition is playfully staged as a vast metropolis designed by Fei in collaboration with Beau Architects. Visitors enter the gallery via a replica of a 1960s Beijing cinema foyer and exit through a yum cha restaurant inspired by a popular Sydney venue.

Throughout the cityscape, physical and digital worlds blur in an eclectic combination of references. From pop culture to cosplay, from surrealism to hip-hop, and from cyber aesthetics to retro sci-fi, the dizzyingly energetic exhibition invites audiences to consider how technology, bodies, emotions and institutional powers intersect in our ever-developing world.

Cao Fei: My City Is Yours (曹斐: 欢迎登陆) runs from November 30, 2024, to April 13, 2025. Tickets are available now at artgallery.nsw.gov.au. AGNSW is open from 10am to 5pm daily, and until 10pm on select Wednesdays.

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