Cao Fei: My City Is Yours Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales

In the largest exhibition of her work ever seen in Australia, Cao Fei brings
the energy of the contemporary metropolis into the Art Gallery of New South
Wales with a retrospective that includes two new commissions.

Cao was recently voted one of the most influential artists in the world. Born
in Guangzhou in 1978 and based in Beijing, she has documented China’s rapid
urbanisation and digital revolutions for over two decades. Her acclaimed
films, photography and large-scale installations offer thrilling encounters
with the disorienting, quick-fire transformations of the new millennium. My
City is Yours is an invitation into a world of neon, street dance and pop
music; a city both familiar and warped, real and virtual. Enter the exhibition
via a replica 1960s Beijing cinema foyer and exit through a homage to a
popular Sydney yum cha restaurant. Designed by the artist and Beau Architects
of Hong Kong, the exhibition takes the form of a cityscape. It’s a space of
play and self-reinvention, where cosplayers and hip-hop dancers take over
sidewalks in Fukuoka and New York. It’s a city of screens and pixels, mediated
by gaming technologies, VR and the metaverse. It’s a city under construction,
where neighbourhoods are razed overnight and workers compete for jobs with
robots.

Image caption: Cao Fei 'Nova' 2006 (video still) © Cao Fei, Vitamin Creative.
Courtesy Sprüth Magers