{"id":5847,"date":"2015-07-23T10:24:42","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T02:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/?p=5847"},"modified":"2015-07-23T10:41:41","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T02:41:41","slug":"cao-fei-splendid-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/?p=5847","title":{"rendered":"Cao Fei: Splendid River"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1\"<\/a> \"2\"<\/a> \"3\"<\/a> \"4\"<\/a> \"5\"<\/a> \"6\"<\/a> \"7\"<\/a> \"8\"<\/a> \"9\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For Cao Fei\u2019s exhibition at the Vienna Secession, in the outdoor installation Splendid River (2015), four Chinese characters temporarily decorate the Secession\u2019s fa\u00e7ade, replicating a replica of the Secession building in Cao Fei\u2019s hometown of Guangzhou, where the building houses the offices of a real estate business. Copying is a common phenomenon in China, where anything from popular brand-name products to icons of Western architecture or even whole towns are faked. Splendid Mirror (2015) similarly addresses the relationship between original and replica. A large number of fake mirrored aviator sunglasses are arranged in a showcase as if for sale. The mirrored glass not only reflects what is regarded as fashionable and \u2018cool\u2019; with its one-way visibility, it also alludes to modes of concealing and revealing one\u2019s identity on the Internet.<\/p>\n

In her 4-channel video installation Strangers (2015), Cao Fei uses an online dating platform as a space for small, performative interventions for \u2018random strangers\u2019 to watch: a random shadow play in front of a city skyline; a Buddha figure smiling into the camera; a person asleep in bed. Users log in from around the world\u2014usually expecting to find sexual attraction, distraction from their everyday routine, or simply driven by curiosity. While individuals seem to become more and more detached from their immediate fellow citizens and surroundings, dating platforms are becoming increasingly popular. Their approach toward human interaction in virtual reality is a strongly consumerist one: the passive voyeur zaps from one stranger to another, like zapping TV channels. Cao Fei\u2019s subtle interventions deliberately do not meet users\u2019 common expectations and the bored gaze of the stranger turns to the next channel, but they nevertheless have the power to surprise, to entertain, and to question.<\/p>\n

In the installation Rumba (2015), automated performances take place according to a fixed schedule: household robots perform a kind of random choreography. Triggered by an invisible signal, four cleaning robots start to circle around a stage with barriers and bridges, as if dancing with joy over the conveniences that automation offers the newly rich and middle class.<\/p>\n

\uff08Rumba\uff0c2015\uff09<\/a><\/p>\n

Text: edited from the press release of Cao Fei\u2019s solo exhibition \u201cSplendid River\u201d at Secession.<\/span>
\n Image: courtesy Secession, Photo by Oliver Ottenschl\u00e4ger; Courtesy the artist, photo by Cao Fei<\/span><\/p>\n

Exhibition info:\u2028Cao Fei\u2028Splendid River\u20282015\/7\/1-2015\/8\/30
\nSecession\u2028Vienna,
\nAustria\u2028http:\/\/www.secession.at<\/p>\n

\"10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cao Fei<\/span>
\nSplendid River<\/span>
\n120 pages<\/span>
\nFormat: 165 x 222 mm<\/span>
\nTexts: Cao Fei<\/span>
\nSecession 2015<\/span>
\nDistribution: Revolver Verlag<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Cao Fei\u2019s exhibition at the Vienna Secession, in the outdoor installation Splendid River (2015), four Chinese characters temporarily decorate the Secession\u2019s fa\u00e7ade, replicating a replica of the Secession building in Cao Fei\u2019s hometown of Guangzhou, where the building houses the offices of a real estate business. Copying is a common phenomenon in China, where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5859,"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847\/revisions\/5859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitamincreativespace.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}