Design

This Hong Kong Skyscraper Became a Giant Atari

Sounds fun, but do we really want tourism-spectacle work from world-class artists?
Cao Fei

Hal Foster got it right. His 2011 book, The Art-Architecture Complex, described the immense market pressures forcing artists into architecture and architects into art. Think Ai Weiwei designing the Bird's Nest stadium for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Or Carsten Höller building a slide through the New Museum. Or Diller Scofidio + Renfro trying to inflate a giant bubble at the Hirshhorn Museum.

So when Cao Fei turned a Hong Kong tower into a giant Atari for this year's Art Basel Hong Kong, it wasn't a first.