Chinese Artist Uses Second Life as Lucrative Artistic Medium

Cao Fei is a 29 year old artist from Guangzhou, China who is using Second Life as her artistic medium and making good money along the way. The Visions of Modernity blog profiles her newest project, RMB City, which is a cyber art island that has already fetched 100,000 Euros from a European collector for a piece of virtual real estate. RMB City features a surreal collection of Chinese symbols, new and old, everything from pandas and construction cranes to the Olympic ‘Bird Nest’ Stadium and Tiananmen square. Cao Fei explains:

“RMB City… doesn’t restore the full present, nor does it recall our reminiscence of the past. It’s a mirror that partially reflects; we see where we were coming from, discover some of the ‘connections’ that fill the pale zone between the real and the virtual, the clues of which get disturbed, enriched, and polished.”

The project is being exhibited at the Lombard-Freid Projects Gallery in New York’s Chelsea district until April 5th.

i.Mirror: Cao Fei’s Second Life Documentary Film

Visions of Modernity: A Slice of Self in RMB City