The segment culminates in the artist’s ongoing project, RMB City, an artificial island built in the 3D virtual world of Second Life that resembles a postmodern collage of landmarks, urban over-development, and Chinese landscape painting. The interactive work is shown in multiple ways: behind-the-scenes on computers in her Beijing studio, as an installation at the Serpentine Gallery in London (2008), and as Internet-based machinima shot during the opening ceremony/dance party in January 2009. “I think this project will lead to a foundation on which to experiment with utopian practices,” says Cao, who is turning the management of her imaginary city over to its online community.
Cao’s work reflects the fluidity of a world in which cultures have mixed and diverged in rapid evolution. Her video installations and new media works explore perception and reality in places as diverse as a Chinese factory and the virtual world of Second Life. Applying strategies of sampling, role play, and documentary filmmaking to capture individuals’ longings and the ways in which they imagine themselves—as hip-hop musicians, costumed characters, or digitized alter egos—Cao Fei reveals the discrepancy between reality and dream, and the discontent and disillusionment of China’s younger generation. Depictions of Chinese architecture and landscape abound in scenes of hyper-capitalistic Pearl River Delta development, in images that echo traditional Chinese painting, and in the design of her own virtual utopia, RMB City. Fascinated by the world of Second Life, Cao Fei has created several works in which she is both participant and observer through her Second Life avatar, China Tracy, who acts as a guide, philosopher, and tourist.
http://blog.art21.org/category/artists/cao-fei/
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