New media artist Cao Fei has spent the better part of two decades delving into virtual spaces and questioning how people respond to rapid technological advances. The Chinese artist has exhibited work in several mediums, including film, video art, performance art, and most recently, virtual reality (VR) itself. The Lenbachhaus in Munich, Germany will soon host an art exhibition of her work created through her foray into the VR community, along with her work exploring technological accelerationism and its impact on the real world.an exhibition entitled Cao Fei.metamentary The exhibition will run from April 12th to September 8th, 2024 and will be curated by Eva Hattenlauf, Deputy Head of Department, Head of Collections and Curator of Art since 1945 at Lenbachhaus. . Prior to the show, Hüttenlauf participated in an interview with her STIR in which she explores human identity in the VR era through Kao’s new media practice, and in response to the proliferation of technology, many digital Tackles the great insecurities shared by artists across the world.
Faye mines the VR space through two avatars. The first avatar is Chyna She Tracy, who exists as a human-android hybrid.Fay’s audience first encountered Tracy through a three-part video art piece i.Miller (2007)It records the avatar’s activities in the virtual world. second life. It is an online multimedia platform similar to Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), with no competition created. This platform was a forerunner of his current VR space, allowing users to create fantastical avatars and interact with each other through them. Tracy would become even more famous in his 2009 year. RMB City: Second Life City Planning by China Tracey (aka: Cao Fei)was an ambitious virtual art project that started in 2008 and remained open to the public until 2011. renminbi city Saw Faye plan and create an entire virtual city within it. second life, with collaborators such as art collector Uli Sigg and architect Rem Koolhaas. It is named after the Chinese currency unit, the Renminbi. renminbi city Based on contemporary, historical, and fantastical depictions of Chinese cities.
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Faye’s second avatar is: metamentary Oz is an androgynous tentacled creature who, like China Tracy, is part android.Oz opens to the public for the first time at the 2022 show duotopia. The exhibition took the COVID-19 pandemic as a starting point and explored how virtual reality shaped human interaction at the time.
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Referring to the purpose behind Fei’s exploration of virtual space, Hattenlauf said, “…Cao Fei himself walked through a rapidly changing world with our eyes and senses open, and how we interact with VR when dealing with it.” We are observing her behavior.” The curators do not believe that the artist’s work is intended to shape our understanding of how human identity is changed by technology, but rather that Faye uses her experience as a document and fiction. I think they are trying to process it into borderline films and visual art. In her words, “…it is important that she uses fantasy as a tool to suggest and encourage a way out of the dilemmas, or ‘horrors’, of the digital world.” In doing so, we are not forced to surrender completely. However, we can always use fantasy to create our own world, even in the here and now reality. ”
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When discussing issues related to the digital world, it would be a mistake not to bring up the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) art, which is perhaps the biggest source of anxiety for artists and others in the field today. It will push them out of the digital art market. One wonders whether other artists will soon be able to develop VR-based practices like Fay’s, and whether virtual spaces will soon provide new markets for digital artists. Probably. Hattenlauf answered this question quite optimistically, telling STIR: [VR art] will also appear. We may not know what it is yet, but there has always been a way to cast and distribute new techniques and technologies in new channels and develop markets for them. ” The curator believes that this is true in both real and virtual spaces, and that technological developments are always closely related to innovations in distribution channels.
As digital continues to grow, a market for it (VR art) will also emerge. We may not know what it is yet, but there have always been ways to cast and distribute new methods and technologies in new channels and develop markets for them.
– Eva Hattenlauf, Deputy Head of Lenbachhaus Department, Head of Collections and Curator, Art since 1945
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Although it may be far from a full-fledged art market in the virtual world, many works are being exhibited in the virtual world. metamentary These are examples of art created within a virtual space and displayed in a physical gallery. As mentioned earlier, this crossover is nothing new for digital artists. renminbi city Acquired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as part of its collection of contemporary art. duotopia It was also exhibited at the Sprüth Magers gallery space in Berlin. Her practice is remarkable, above all, for how it bridges these twin worlds. metamentary This sets a precedent for artists with similar interests to start working on VR.
“Metamentary” will be performed at the Lenbachhaus in Munich from April 12th to September 8th, 2024.