Whose Utopia? by Cao Fei

It is customary for people to only accept a work of art as “art” or a work of beauty if it appeals to them from their first sight. I do this on a daily basis myself but the article, “What Makes Good Art,” brings the issue of how you should really give artistic works a chance to the foreground.

I chose a contemporary piece from a simple search at random that seemed unusual even comparing to Picasso and surrealistic works. The work I chose is Whose Utopia? by Cao Fei. To really make it different for me to decipher this work I chose a non-painted and very unfamiliar medium of just a simple high definition camera.

At first look this picture is taken in some sort of warehouse with pallets with products wrapped up on them on shelving much like you would see in any normal warehouse. However, in the middle of the isle there is a woman dressed in a white and blue polka dotted dress in some sort of dancing motion. The first thing that comes to mind is why is there a dressed up dancer practicing in a warehouse? Asking myself this question I drew no real conclusion what Fei wanted to get across by this. But I noticed that the woman seemed as though to be deliberately placed far away and the picture not cropped so that she’s in the dead center. Why would this be?

Yes she is in the middle as should the only human in this work of are but why seeming to make her seem small and surrounded. In my opinion the reason for this was to depict her to be overcome or overwhelmed by all the complicated things in the world.

Or since Fei didn’t crop off much of the higher up shelving it could be possible to show that at any moment someone could be surrounded and at any moment be toppled on, even a graceful dancer such as her.

It is easy enough to be overcome with ideas for art when you get on a roll and especially when you think about the artist and just keep asking yourself, “What does he or she mean by this?” It is almost frustrating at times, just as this piece is for me. Why did he choose this warehouse? Maybe because it was high up and has simple boxes wrapped up not to be too specific to any certain product in the world. Or maybe it was just close by and suited his idea. I rather like the latter.

Or could it have been an accident? Just something he stumbled upon and ideas started flying through his head and this is the by-product. All the more reason to look into works of art, more than what you perceive at face value.