Cao Fei “Blueprints” Opens at Serpentine Galleries, London
16. 3. 2020
Design Trust is proud to support Cao Fei’s exhibition “Blueprints” at London’s Serpentine Galleries, marking the Beijing-based artist and filmmaker’s first large-scale institutional solo exhibition in the UK. Partly supported by Design Trust’s Feature Grant programme, “Blueprints” brings together new and existing works in an immersive, site-specific installation, expanding the themes of automation, virtuality and technology that Cao Fei continuously draws upon. The exhibition is free to the public and will be on view through 17 May 2020.
Cao Fei is one of the most innovative young Chinese artists to have emerged on the international scene. Currently living in Beijing, she mixes social commentary, popular aesthetics, references to Surrealism, and documentary conventions in her films and installations. Her works reflect on the rapid and chaotic changes that are occurring in Chinese society today.
At the centre of this institutional survey exhibition is Cao Fei’s new work in Virtual Reality. Titled “The Eternal Wave”, the artwork brings together collected archival material based on elements of Cao Fei’s Beijing studio - former site of the now defunct Hongxia Theatre. Hongxia Theatre was originally a cinema for factory workers and had been derelict since 2008, until the artist moved her studio to the site in 2015. “The Eternal Wave” begins in a physical rendition of Hongxia Theatre’s kitchen - a stage set in Cao Fei’s 2019 film Nova – and draws the viewer into the deeper realms of the artist’s creative universe, traversing boundaries between time and space to explore the areas in and around Hongxia Theatre and the computers of early electronics industry.
The exhibition is accompanied by a parallel programme of public talks, curator-led tours, a screening of Cao Fei’s feature length film Nova (2019) and a live artist Q&A.
Exhibition information:
Date: 14 March – 17 May 2020
Open 10am - 6pm Tuesday to Sunday, plus bank holidays
Closed on Mondays
Venue: Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA
With the ongoing uncertainties brought on by COVID-19, public places may be closed with short notice. We advise checking the Serpentine Galleries’ website for most updated information before planning your visit.
