Cao Fei: The New Angel

“Safety Curtain” is an exhibition series conceived by museum in progress, which has been transforming the safety curtain of the Vienna State Opera House into an exhibition space for contemporary art since 1998.

Venus Lau describes Cao Fei’s intervention and the face that appears on the proscenium: “China Tracy”, the avatar of artist, a mirror image of her alter ego. China Tracy’s digital dermis collects the visual stereotypes of a ‘warrior woman’. However, China Tracy was not born to fight and is not an exact simulation of Cao Fei in real life. The artist’s avatar was created in Second Life: a virtual world without plots, choreographed actions or quests, without gravity or certain death. As a ‘resident’ of this virtual realm, China Tracy wanders the user-driven virtual world, drifting and teleporting between numerous virtual cities, embodying an experience outside conventional spatial dimensions.