Cao Fei: Whose Utopia

About the Exhibit

Cao Fei’s 2006 video Whose Utopia highlights the workforce at the OSRAM lighting factory located in China’s Pearl River Delta region. At the time the film was made, OSRAM was one of the largest manufacturers of light bulbs in the world. Fei created the work during her six-month artist residency at the factory. She filmed daily activities, documented the production process and collaborated with workers to develop a variety of performances that were staged and filmed within the factory.

As the video unfolds, documentation of the production line evolves into surreal performances by the workers. Each person transforms into a character of their own design—from a ballerina to a tai chi master. They dance or play music, while the production of light bulbs continues to happen all around them. The aim, according to Fei, was to “release the workers from a standardized notion of productivity.” Her poetic intervention into the factory creates moments that transform an industrial, highly controlled, impersonal space into a fluid arena for self-expression.

Organized by Hannah Klemm, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art

Members get free admission.

About the Artist

Multi-media artist Cao Fei’s works examine social and technological changes brought on by globalization, urbanization, and digitalization in our current moment.  

Born in 1978 in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, Cao Fei earned a BFA from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2001. Cao Fei’s solo exhibitions include those at the Para Site Art Space, Hong Kong (2006); Stedelijk Museum Het Domein, Sittard, Netherlands (2006); Serpentine Gallery, London (2008–09); Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2009); Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2014); Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2016); and MoMA PS1, New York (2016). Cao Fei has participated in the Guangzhou Triennial (2002, 2005, and 2008); Venice Biennale (2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015); Sydney Biennial (2006 and 2010); Istanbul Biennial (2007); Yokohama Triennial (2008); and New Museum Triennial, New York (2009). She received the Best Young Artist Award (2006) and Best Artist Award (2016) from the Chinese Contemporary Art Award. In 2010, she was a finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize. Cao Fei lives and works in Beijing. 

Image Gallery

Image Credit

Cao Fei, Whose Utopia, 2006, HD Video, color, sound, 20:00 min., Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Promised gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein, 2007 (photo: © Cao Fei, 2024, courtesy the artist, Sprüth Magers and Vitamin Creative Space)