Cao Fei is a multimedia artist known for works that focus on the interplay between real and fictional worlds. Working across photography, performance, video, and digital media, her practice vividly reflects the zeitgeist of the late 20th century and the role that image production plays in shaping youth culture in a digital era. Influenced by an array of forms of global pop culture — from Cantonese Pop and Japanese anime to American hip-hop — a common thread in Cao’s practice is the merging of everyday life with new forms of technology as a means to unveil society's unfulfilled desires. Her pivotal film Whose Utopia showcases assembly line workers in a factory in China as they act out their aspirations in a backdrop of industrial machinery. Through constructed worlds, Fei presents a profound meditation on the boundaries between the real and the fantastic and the sense of alienation that drives new generations to increasingly experience the world behind the veneer of their avatars.