Cao Fei's Art Gallery of NSW exhibit showcases a multitude of worlds in a single space

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On an otherwise unremarkable day, Chinese artist Cao Fei received a voice message from her older sister, Cao Xiaoyun, that she’ll never forget.

It was 2022 and Fei was at home in Guangzhou, in China’s Guangdong province. Her sister was in Sydney, where she’d been living since the late 90s.

Xiaoyun told Fei via WeChat: “I just had my breakfast and took some painkillers. I will call home later.”

“We have three hours of time difference. Make sure you put it on the speaker and turn up the volume.”

Fei understood the gravity of Xiaoyun’s instructions: Her then 51-year-old sister had been diagnosed with cancer some years earlier.

A young Chinese woman standing outside beside trees.

Cao Fei says her sister Cao Xiaoyun (pictured) was “quite introverted”. Source: Supplied / Cao Fei

Following her sister’s orders, Fei gathered with her family and awaited the call. Xiaoyun told them she would soon be admitted into palliative care at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital — she was dying.

At the time, China was still following strict ‘zero-COVID’ measures and effectively cut off from the rest of the world. Fei knew she wouldn’t get a chance to see her sister again.

The then-44-year-old had a well-established contemporary art practice and was internationally acclaimed. She had exhibited three times at the Venice Biennale, twice at the Biennale of Sydney, and had held solo exhibitions in New York, London, Paris and Rome.

When Xiaoyun delivered her news, Fei was just about to start work on her first solo exhibition in Sydney.

“I sensed an urgency to do an interview with her [Xiaoyun],” Fei recalls.

I wanted to preserve her existence and thoughts in the world.

The pair later spoke on the phone for an hour, which Fei recorded.

It would be their last call.

A month later, Xiaoyun passed away, aged 50.

Three young girls, two standing and one sitting in the middle, play musical instruments.

Sisters Cao Xiaoyun, Cao Fei and Cao Dan all studied art as children. Source: Supplied / Cao Fei

Three years on, Fei, who ranked tenth in the ArtReview global Power100 artist list in 2023, has opened her first major solo exhibition in Australia at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW).

Titled Cao Fei: My City is Yours 曹斐: 欢迎登陆, the exhibition showcases an array of multimedia and immersive artworks spanning 20 years of practice, which largely centre on the daily lives of Chinese people amid China’s rapid economic growth and urbanisation.

Themes of techno-optimism and digital revolution are punctuated through Fei’s virtual worlds, neon-lit installations and immersive video works.

At the heart of the exhibition is one of two new works, presented in two interconnecting rooms: a small gallery and a life-like living room that function as an exhibition within the exhibition.

Titled Golden Wattle — Xiaoyun’s favourite native Australian flower — the installation work is dedicated to Fei’s late sister.

A neon green and yellow sign that reads "Golden Wattle" and depicts the figure of a young woman and a wattle branch.

In exhibition notes, Cao Fei says: “Although my sister’s story adds a little sadness to this exhibition, it is not that heavy … her life was filled with beauty.” Source: Supplied / AGNSW/Diana Panuccio

Sisters’ tale of two cities

Soon after China reopened its borders to the world in 2023, Fei arrived in Sydney to pay tribute to Xiaoyun and begin preparations for her exhibition, which had been programmed as part of the Sydney International Art Series 2024–25.

She visited Parramatta Park, where Xiaoyun would go for her 45-minute morning walk every day while living in western Sydney before her cancer diagnosis.

A painter herself, Xiaoyun also captured the trees in Parramatta Park in a painting, which is on display alongside several of her other artworks as part of the Golden Wattle installation.

“Xiaoyun took a lot of inspiration for her painting from the natural environment in Australia,” Fei says.

“That’s why I wanted to visit Parramatta Park: I wanted to feel what she felt at that time.”

An elderly woman, flanked by two young girls on either side, is pictured in front of the Sydney Opera House.

Cao Xiaoyun (pictured left) with her mum and sister Cao Dan. Source: Supplied / Cao Fei

Born in 1972 to a single mother, Xiaoyun was adopted by Fei’s parents, who were both artists in Guangzhou and later gave birth to two girls, including Fei.

In the late 80s, Xiaoyun was introduced by family friends to her husband, a Chinese migrant who moved to Sydney for work. The pair wrote letters to each other for a year before they decided to tie the knot.

It took another year before Xiaoyun’s Australian visa was approved. In 1998, she farewelled her family in Guangzhou and moved to Sydney.

Fei says she was too young to understand what her sister experienced as a new migrant.

“I was just at university at that time, so I couldn’t think of and empathise with the hardship that Xiaoyun experienced when she first arrived in Sydney,” she says.

Years later, Xiaoyun would recount the experience to Fei, saying: “I was worried about my English. I [didn’t] have many friends. I also worried that I couldn’t integrate into society.”

Before long, Xiaoyun had found her first job in Haymarket Chinatown, working in food delivery. In her spare time, she would play the piano and paint. In letters to home, she complained about Sydney’s high property prices and mentioned she was learning to drive.

Despite its challenges, Sydney became Xiaoyun’s home. She felt a greater sense of belonging in Australia than in China and told Fei before she died: “In Sydney, you are free to do whatever you want.”

Fei explains: “It’s where her husband lived, it’s where their home is. She also liked the natural, tranquil views in Sydney.”

Xiaoyun’s fondness for Australian native flora, in particular the golden wattle — Acacia pycnantha — brings elements of the natural world to the bustling cityscapes of My City is Yours. In the exhibition’s notes, Fei describes her sister as “a window that opened up Australian life to me”.

A woman is touching a wall-mounted tombstone that reads "Xiaoyun Cao".

Cao Fei (pictured) visiting her sister’s memorial in Sydney. Source: Supplied / Cao Fei

Along with some of Xiaoyun’s artworks, the Golden Wattle features postcards, family photos and a video work, which includes footage of Xiaoyun in hospital.

In an exhibition that blends the bright and busy aesthetics of real and virtual metropolises, Golden Wattle is a comparatively intimate and understated space, which feels like stepping into a family home.

Culturally linked with Sydney’s icons

In addition to the Golden Wattle, Fei has also produced another new work for the exhibition: Hip Hop Sydney.

It’s a riff on her renowned 2003 video work Hip Hop: Guangzhou, which features a group of Guangzhou locals dancing and expressing themselves through hip-hop. Since its first incarnation, Fei has replicated the project in Fukuoka, Japan and New York.

Fei says she was initially sceptical about producing a similar project in Sydney, as she didn’t find the city “hip-hop enough” compared to cities like New York.

A woman is holding a narrow, purple inflated balloon.

Cao Fei (pictured) is based in Beijing and is considered one of the most influential contemporary artists in the world. Source: Supplied / AGNSW/Diana Panuccio

However, as she wandered around Sydney in 2023 and discovered hidden gems in Haymarket’s Chinatown — the oldest Chinese cultural hub in the western world — she changed her mind.

Born and raised in Guangzhou — one of Sydney’s six designated ‘sister cities’ — Fei also found a connection with Haymarket’s Chinatown, which was founded by Chinese migrants from Guangdong and Fujian in the late 19th century. (Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province.)

“I only recently discovered that Haymarket was where Xiaoyun posted all the letters to home,” Fei says.

“According to my brother-in-law, when my sister first arrived in Sydney, they hadn’t found a place to settle, so they just found a place in Haymarket where they could post and receive letters.”

A still from a video featuring a young Chinese man and an older Chinese man dancing on the street.

Cao Fei’s video work Hip Hop: Sydney (pictured) features Chinese Australians of all ages dancing to songs by Korean-Australian band 1300. Source: Supplied / AGNSW/Cao Fei

During her trip, Fei also discovered similarities between Sydney and Guangzhou through food.

“Among the cities I’ve been to, Sydney is where I can find Chinese food with the least difficulty.”

Now when I visit Sydney, I will go for yum cha and dim sum.

With the support of Soul of Chinatown, a not-for-profit organisation advocating for the revitalisation of the iconic Chinese cultural hub, Fei invited 60 Chinese Australians to take part in Hip Hop: Sydney.

The video, which was filmed over three days, also features Burwood Chinatown in Sydney’s inner west. The cultural precinct was revitalised in 2017 in recognition of the area’s Mandarin-speaking Chinese community, which has ballooned since 2000.

The inside of an exhibition shows a three-panel video installation and neon signage that reads: "My city is yours your city is mine."

The exhibition includes video works, photography, virtual reality experiments and immersive installation works. Source: Supplied / AGNSW/Diana Panuccio

Fei says she is happy to see new cultural hubs like Burwood Chinatown co-exist with historical ones such as Haymarket’s.

“I don’t think it’s bad to have more spaces like Burwood Chinatown. A city always needs new energy. Burwood is full of youth vibes. Young people go there for social photos and food,” Fei says.

“The two Chinatowns complement each other.”

Preserving a city memory

Despite having been hit hard by COVID-19 lockdowns, Burwood Chinatown has bounced back, yet the comparatively slow recovery of Haymarket Chinatown has pushed the City of Sydney to endorse a revitalisation strategy, which has been in place since late 2023.

An immersive artwork featuring a recreated theatre entrance foyer, with a semi-circular table and a red board in the background with Mandarin inscription.

In this work, Fei recreates the foyer of Beijing’s Hongxia Theatre, which was her studio space for six years before it was demolished in 2021. Source: Supplied / AGNSW/Cao Fei

For Fei, the idea of preserving and creating cities is always central to her art practice, from the physical recreation of the disused Hongxia Theatre in Beijing to RMB City, a futuristic and postmodern city that Fei built in the virtual reality game ‘Second Life’.

For the AGNSW exhibition, the artist has also recreated a corner of Sydney’s historic Marigold Restaurant, which closed in 2021 as a result of COVID-19. The installation work, titled Goodbye, Marigold, features salvaged tables and chairs from the restaurant and invites gallery-goers to take a seat and interact with some of Fei’s early video works.

Fei was drawn to the site not only for its “90s Canto-decor, all-red velvet curtains and gold fixtures” but also because of its lasting significance to the Chinese diaspora. She says cultural sites need to be protected and revived if they are to avoid Marigold’s fate.

An artwork featuring a recreated restaurant showcasing a dining room with round tables and chairs, chandeliers, paintings mounted on the walls, and a red carpet.

Sydney’s Marigold restaurant operated for 39 years before it closed its doors in 2021 due to COVID-19 lockdowns. Source: Supplied / AGNSW/Diana Panuccio

“Revitalisation is our transformation and re-activation of buildings installed in the last century. To reactivate architecture, we need to have opportunities at the right time. It needs support from both the government and the public,” Fei says.

As an artist, that’s beyond my reach, but I can take this as my art inspiration, whether it’s through physical recreation or virtual reality.

In other works throughout the exhibition, Fei focuses on the experience of urban life — especially for the working class. Even when exploring alternate realities and the metaverse, her interest in ordinary human experience is what connects her work.

Fei says she hopes the immersive and interactive nature of the exhibition makes the artworks and their concepts more “approachable”.

“As an artist, I’m very glad to see so many people of different backgrounds and age groups all enjoy my exhibition, as this has gone beyond my original plan.”

Cao Fei: My City is Yours 曹斐: 欢迎登陆 is at the Art Gallery of NSW until 13 April.