Born in Guangzhou in 1978 and now based in Beijing, Cao Fei is one of China's most prominent young artists, known for photographs and videos that combine elements of fantasy and documentary to reflect on cultural shifts since the country's economic opening at the start of the 1980s.
Since 2007, Cao has taken her work online to the virtual community SecondLife (SL), where users can design their own avatars, create personalized utopias and escape the limitations of reality (all while retaining the comforts of sex and commerce). Using graphics capture programs, she has made films in SL and also created her own city, RMB City, which officially launched earlier this year.
Cao's RMB City project is the subject of her current exhibition at Shiseido Gallery in Ginza. Among works on display are "i.Mirror" (2007), which follows Cao's avatar China Tracy as she explores SL for the first time, and a new film commissioned by Shiseido, "Live in RMB City," in which China Tracy leads her newborn son China Sun on a philosophical tour of their virtual environment.