New media artist Cao Fei has spent the better part of two decades delving deep into virtual spaces to interrogate how people respond to rapid technological progress. The Chinese artist presents her work across several mediums, including film, video art, performance art and more recently, virtual reality (VR) itself. The Lenbachhaus in Munich, Germany will soon present an art exhibition of her works created through her forays into VR communities, along with works that explore technological accelerationism and its impact on the real world. The exhibition, titled Cao Fei. Meta-mentary is set to run from April 12-September 8, 2024, and is curated by Eva Huttenlauch, Deputy Head of Department and Head of Collections and Curator, Art after 1945 at the Lenbachhaus. Ahead of the show, Huttenlauch joins STIR in an interview to explore human identity in the age of VR through Cao’s new media practice and to tackle a major anxiety shared by many digital artists, in response to the proliferation of deep tech.

Fei mines VR spaces through two avatars, the first of which is China Tracey, who presents as a human-android hybrid. Fei’s audiences first met Tracey through the three-part video art piece i.Mirror (2007), which documented the avatar’s activities in the virtual world, Second Life. It is an online multimedia platform similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), without any manufactured conflict. The platform is a precursor to current VR spaces and allowed users to create fantastical avatars, through which they could interact with one another. Tracey would rise to greater prominence in 2009, with the completion of RMB City: A Second Life City Planning by China Tracey (aka: Cao Fei), an ambitious virtual art project begun in 2008, that would remain open to the public till 2011. RMB City saw Fei plan and create an entire virtual city within Second Life, along with collaborators such as art collector Uli Sigg and architect Rem Koolhaas. Named for the Chinese currency unit, Renminbi, RMB City draws on contemporary, historic and fantastical depictions of Chinese urbanism.

Fei’s second avatar seen in Meta-mentary is Oz, an androgynous tentacled being, which is also part android like China Tracey. Oz was first presented to the public at the 2022 show Duotopia. The exhibition took the COVID-19 pandemic as its starting point and explored how virtual reality shaped human interaction during those years.

Huttenlauch addresses the purpose behind Fei’s exploration of virtual spaces, saying “...Cao Fei herself walks through the rapidly changing world with open eyes and senses and she observes our and her behaviour in dealing with VR.” The curator does not believe that the artist’s works are meant to shape our understanding of how human identities shift through technology, but rather that Fei is trying to process her experiences into film and visual art that toes the line between documentation and fiction. In her words, “...it is important that she uses fantasy as a tool to suggest or encourage a way out of the dilemma, or ‘horror’ if you want, of the digital world, so we are not forced to surrender completely to the digital, but we can always create our worlds through the use of fantasy, even in the real here and now.”

When discussing the issues associated with the digital world, one would be amiss not to bring up what is perhaps the greatest source of anxiety for artists and others within the space today: the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) art, with many worrying that it will push them out of the digital art market. One wonders if other artists will soon be able to develop a VR-based practice like Fei’s and if the virtual space may soon offer new markets for digital artists. Huttenlauch responds to this question rather optimistically, telling STIR, “As the digital continues to grow, markets for it [VR art] will also emerge. We may not know what these are yet, but there have always been ways of casting and distributing new techniques or technologies in new channels and also opening up markets for them.” The curator believes that this is true across real and virtual spaces and that technical development has always gone hand-in-hand with innovation in distribution channels.

As the digital continues to grow, markets for it (VR art) will also emerge. We may not know what these are yet, but there have always been ways of casting and distributing new techniques or technologies in new channels and also opening up markets for them. – Eva Huttenlauch, Deputy Head of Department and Head of Collections and Curator, Art after 1945 at the Lenbachhaus

While we may be a ways off from full-fledged art markets within the virtual world, many works shown at Meta-mentary are examples of art created within virtual spaces and presented in real galleries. This crossover is nothing new for the digital artist, as the aforementioned RMB City was acquired by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for its collection of contemporary art, and Duotopia was also exhibited in the gallery space of Sprüth Magers, Berlin. Her practice is noteworthy, above all, for how it bridges these twin worlds and one hopes that Meta-mentary sets a precedent for artists with similar preoccupations to begin engaging with VR.

‘Meta-mentary’ will run from April 12 - September 8, 2024, at Lenbachhaus, Munich.