Cao Fei - The New Angel

Cao Fei 
The New Angel
2022
C-Print, Fujiflex Crystal Archive, Diasec, Akrylic glass, Alucubond
43 x 60 cm 
Ed 60
signed and numbered

Cao Fei (Chinese 曹斐 / * 1978 in Guangzhou) is regarded as one of the key figures in contemporary media art and is a pioneering artist in the development of digital and virtual visual worlds. Her work—spanning video, digital simulation, and virtual reality installations—has examined the complex interrelations between social change, technological development, and human experience. Her practice engages with questions of identity, embodiment, and memory. While critically reflecting on the societal consequences of economic growth and technological acceleration, her work resists a purely dystopian outlook, instead opening up ambivalent spaces of thought between critique, imagination, and poetic possibility.

On the occasion of the project "Safety Curtain" by Cao Fei at the Vienna State Opera, a signed edition by Cao Fei was published by the organizors, museum in progress. The edition shows, like the safety curtain within the opera house the avatar called "China Tracey". 

“My digital avatar China Tracy lives in the virtual world. In the opera house, the huge portrait resembles a quiet sculpture. China Tracy is silent and compassionate, as a Buddha statue. She silently observes the real world through the heavy layer of the stage curtain, without giving any answer.” (Cao Fei)

The edition does not need framing and comes with a hanging device on the backside. 

Foto: Andreas Scheiblecker, Copyright: museum in progress