‘I enjoyed the misunderstanding’: Artist Cao Fei on how her mum made her special

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week, he talks to Cao Fei. The influential Chinese artist, 46, has had solo exhibitions globally and has featured at biennales in Istanbul, Lyon and Venice. Her new show is called My City Is Yours 曹斐: 欢迎登陆.

Cao Fei: “You spend your whole life making artwork for the world, but after a thousand years it’ll all disappear.”Credit: James Brickwood

MONEY

How do you make a life in the arts financially sustainable? My parents were both artists. My mum told me that this life would be very, very hard, but if I decided to try it, they’d try to support me. So I’m lucky. And I did a lot of part-time work, too.

Oh, what kind of jobs? In 1992, I was a teenage actor in TV ads.

Really! Was it well-paid? Well, I was 14 and they paid me 300 RMB [about $60] at the time. In 1992, that – for a student – was a lot. I thought I was quite rich. Then I worked in advertising as an art director. I wasn’t invested in the work – in my heart – but I needed the money to support my artistic work.

Do you have any financial advice for young artists? Some of my students [Cao is a professor and master adviser at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts] are very focused on art, but lose life balance. Or sometimes they need support from family. I say, “Be clear about what you want to do, and [about] your goals and what you need to pursue to function.”

How do you like to spend your money? I’m quite traditional: I think about housing for future [generations]. I have two kids. My husband says, “They should earn their own money!” [Laughs] But deep in my heart, I worry about them!

SEX

Growing up, what were you told about sex? In China, our generation didn’t talk directly about sex. We’re shy about this. But like every kid growing up in a conservative environment, we always saw magazines. We had one famous Hong Kong magazine for teenage girls and, in the middle, they had this sealed red paper …

Sealed sections? We had those in Australia, too. Yes! People would bring them in from Hong Kong; we were so hungry to see them.

You’re a parent now. Which generation do you think has had a better sex education? Not our generation. My kids’ generation has more access to information, and they’re more open. My kids study in a French school in Beijing, which will show them queer culture. Traditional Chinese families will not discuss sex, while my 13-year-old daughter tells me they have condoms available in the school toilet!

What were attitudes about gender like when you were growing up? My mum had three daughters; I’m the last one. My mum’s family also had all daughters. So my grandmother – my mum’s mother – gave her a male name. If you’re a woman, your name isn’t traditionally marked in the family-tree book in the village. But my mother’s mother was quite revolutionary. It’s why my mum could become a sculptor.

Do you feel as if you’re part of that family story, too? If she hadn’t been given that name, you wouldn’t have the life and career you have … When I was growing up, Mum also gave me boys’ T-shirts, jackets, jeans and haircuts. That made me very special in school and the boys liked me. I enjoyed being a tomboy. And I enjoyed the misunderstanding.

DEATH

Growing up, what were you told happens after death? Not too much. When I was a kid in China, my parents used to bring me to the temple on the side of the mountain to pay our respects to our ancestors. As time went on, I began to respect the tradition and the idea of existing within a circle of reincarnation. Also, my older sister, who lived in Sydney, passed away two years ago.

I’m so sorry to hear that. She would’ve been young. Only 50. It was cancer, and it was very difficult. She was also an artist and discovered, during COVID, that she probably only had one more year of life. So with my new exhibition here, her work – her painting – will be part of the show. I’ll bring all the letters she wrote to me, before email, between China and Australia. The artwork is called The Golden Wattle because she loved that flower.

Is your artwork – about your sister, featuring your sister – part of processing your grief? Part of the project is a documentary about my older sister. I interviewed my parents, too. When my other sister watched the documentary, she cried a lot. For me, it’s also tough, looking at all the footage. But you have to cross over the difficulty to get the healing. And I’ve also discovered that the Chinese name for the golden wattle flower refers to longing.

I didn’t know that. That’s very moving. I feel my parents getting older. My stepfather’s passed away; Mum’s in hospital; my sister passed away. And I’m middle-aged, right? So I can feel death closely. But it’s also funny: I eat a lot of healthy medicine from Australia. That vitamin brand Swisse – it’s Australian, right? [Laughs] Nowadays, I have to take the 50+ vitamin because it has all the elements I need and they don’t have a 40+ one. Only 50+! [Laughs] So you have to face it!

How do you want to be remembered? You spend your whole life making artwork for the world, but after a thousand years it’ll all disappear. So there is just a very short period when I can contribute. So why am I making Hip Hop Sydney [an installation project in which this writer participated; Sydneysiders were taped dancing hip-hop in unusual locations]? Why am I getting everyone to pretend they’re young? Because I want to be!

My City Is Yours 曹斐: 欢迎登陆 opens at the Art Gallery of NSW on November 30.

[e-mail]

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.