Cao Fei - A hollow in a world too full

his artist book by multimedia artist Cao Fei is a record of her new film The Prison Architect. The book contains numerous stills as well as all the selected poems from the film. The special binding technique and the rough texture on the paper in making these books appeal to its prison theme. The text and poems are thoughtfully incorporated with the images, it’s a recalling experience of the film as the readers go through this book. The uses of negative and blank space is also an exciting part of this book, leaving subtle surprises to the readers.

Another important part of this book is the sketches of the world’s famous prison designs which were used as inspirations by the architect character in the film. Sketches of these prisons printed on semi-transparent tracing paper layered on one another forming a messy and complicated maze. While one is amazed by the beautiful and prudence designs of these architectures, a sense of horror also conveys. As the reader lifts up each page, the image becomes less dense, and eventually, reaches the white blank page of “freedom”.

These thoughtful designs make the book becomes an architecture itself, containing the narration. In addition, all the texts and poetries are accompanied by English translations for non-Chinese readers.

Cao Fei (b.1978) is a multimedia artist from Guangzhou, China. Her work is largely based on popular culture, social aesthetics in forms of installation, digital media, and films, etc.. Cao’s work has been exhibited in numerous international art institutions and events, such as the Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, Tai Kwun, Moscow Biennale, etc..