Step Into Digital Dreamscapes in Cao Fei's 'My City is Yours'
At Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales, the artist constructs urban landscapes that probe how technology reshapes how we live, feel and connect.
For more than two decades, Beijing-based artist Cao Fei has documented China’s rapid urbanization and digital revolution, channeling the energy of the vibrant metropolis through magnetic films, photography and large-scale, immersive works.
Now, she is making her Australian solo debut with My City is Yours, now on view at the Art Gallery of New South Wales through April 13, 2025. Stepping beyond conventional gallery walls, the exhibition unfolds like a bustling, surreal cityscape where scaffolding replaces walls and a spectrum of installations compete for attention.
Spanning the gallery’s 1300-square-meter space, the artist presents key works from her career alongside several new commissions. Visitors enter through a replica of the now-demolished Hongxia Theatre, animated by nostalgia and an art-deco flair, where the film Hongxia (2019) plays on an ATM screen in the cinema’s foyer. In Goodbye Marigold (2024), audiences can get a taste of the Sydney-favorite, yum cha restaurant Marigold, in a reincarnation complete with salvaged chandeliers, mirrors and dim-sum trolleys.
Between the two sites, Fei will also be debuting Hip hop: Sydney (2024), a new music video shot around the world; and Golden Wattle (2024), a special project composed of archival materials dedicated to Cao’s late sister. Celebrated works such as Cosplayers (2004) and Nova (2019) will also be on view.
Designed in collaboration with Hong Kong’s Beau Architects, Fei’s world opens a space of reinvention, keenly capturing the fears and fantasies of our contemporary moment. “I’m more interested in how technology influences the experience of the audience, our emotions; how technology changes our lives rather than the technology itself,” the artist explains.
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery Road,
Sydney NSW 2000,
Australia
