Review: My City is Yours, by Cai Fei. Meet the hilarious people who make almost everything you own

In times to come, when China is more open, anthropologists will be looking for the meaning of what we did to a generation that made just about everything we wear, hear and use.

Made in China is a label on so many everyday items. Now meet some of the people that made all that possible. Not the billionaires and political leaders. The factory workers.

In the largest exhibition of her work seen in Australia, Cao Fei (pronounced tsow fay) introduces us to this world at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Cao Fei knows this world well. She is a Chinese multimedia artist born in Guangzhou, the centre of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area, the most populous built-up metropolitan area in the world.

Her work, a mix video, performance, and digital media, examines the rapid social and cultural transformation of contemporary China. It’s at once exhilarating and a little depressing.

Cao has been voted one of the most influential artists in the world. And this exhibition explains why.

Her incredible use of just about every experiential medium you can think of is incredible. From a dim sum restaurant to the death of a city theatre, you’ll meet the people who made your iPhone and your T-shirt. We owe them a lot,

In the words of the Gallery: “My City is Yours 欢迎登陆 is an invitation into a world of neon, street dance and pop music; a city both familiar and warped, real and virtual. Enter the exhibition via a replica 1960s Beijing cinema foyer, and exit through a homage to a popular Sydney yum cha restaurant.”

Cao Fei is part of the Sydney International Art Series, bringing the world’s most outstanding exhibitions to Australia, exclusively to Sydney.

What: My City is Yours 欢迎登陆
Where: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Naala Badu, Lower level 2
Dates: Now until April, 2025
Times: Open daily, 10am – 5pm
Until 10pm Wednesdays
More: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/cao-fei