Cao Fei Blueprints was published on the 22nd of January 2020
Chinese multi media artist Cao Fei’s third collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery sees the star launch her first major solo exhibition in the UK.
A previous participant in the Gallery’s ‘China Power Station: Part 1’ in 2006, for a time Fei also had one of her own pieces, RMB City, displayed in the entrance of the gallery.
Cao Fei Blueprints will see the Serpentine Gallery showcase a series of new and existing works by the artist, which will explore the themes of automation, technology and the nature of reality, as they occur in the artist’s work.
Another key theme of the exhibition will be virtuality, from its impact on modern concepts of self, to its effect on how we perceive reality itself.
“For me virtuality is a means to express myself, to understand reality, which is what I’m interested in. I use writing and film too, but we are living in an age of rapid technology and in this context, we need to know that virtuality has changed the way reality works. And to do this we need to be part of it.” She says on the subject.
Highlights of the exhibition will include The Eternal Wave, a new virtual reality artwork commissioned for the exhibition itself, a site-specific installation bringing together “collected archival material and furniture that is based on elements of Cao Fei’s Beijing studio” and the artist’s latest film, Nova.
A subsection of the exhibition will explore the remarkable transformation of the artist’s hometown, Hong Xia. Fei has created an installation that incorporates several of her previous works around the themes of automation, virtuality and technology.
Other highlights include Whose Utopia? which looks at the cm phenomenon of automation, La Town which presents a post-apocalyptic cityscape, and RMB City: A Second Life City Planning.
Cao Fei Blueprints is currently closed due to the Coronavirus Crisis. More information on the exhibition can be found here.
For information on other great art exhibitions in London, please click here.
