I saw the Cao Fei exhibition at the AGNSW. I liked the way it was orchestrated, it was well presented and every detail was fine and complex. I felt the personal stories were interesting and the practical attitude of Chinese innovation and progress was at the fore. I felt like I was moving through so many personal and collective spaces, I didn’t know what was coming next. Each new space though was interesting and interactive.

Definitely family friendly but also something youth in general would revel in. There are moments of nostalgia not just for the past but for the future. I suppose China is still developing so the future is always presenting itself. The past becomes a foundation of people trying to make a future themselves. China for decades was under embargo’s to limit development and counter Communism.

Communist China was distinctly different from Western Communism and eventually Western Communism became corrupted leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The pressure applied by the West to dismantle Communism in China never came to fruition and eventually China became a production hub for the world. As China has quite dramatically decoupled from the US only in the past few weeks with the second trade war, it makes you wonder what the future holds.

It is ironic that Cao Fei’s exhibition has existed within what looks like two different worlds. The world was different when the exhibition opened and now it closes this weekend and the world has changed dramatically. The future utopia the Chinese have entered and hope for seems to be under threat from outside forces hoping to drag them back to poverty and isolation. China though is quite important for many countries wanting to trade and build products. It might be quite a big effort to turn the clock back when there is so much potential in the world.