Hantao Li
Giants' Anatomy (2026)

We are excited to launch Giants’ Anatomy by Hantao Li on FVU Watch this month, the first of six new moving image works commissioned as part of FVU New Takes.

The oil industry is a major source of carbon emissions driving climate change, while the offshore oil rig sector has sharply declined since 2014. The number of active platforms fell from over 5,500 in 1981 to under 2,000 by 2023. Many decommissioned rigs now sit in places like Scotland’s Cromarty Firth or are sent to distant ship-breaking yards, shifting environmental impacts out of sight, while some await possible reactivation.

Hantao Li's Giants' Anatomy envisions a speculative journey for decommissioned North Sea oil platforms through this liminal landscape, combining real world footage with Computer-generated Imagery to explore their potential afterlife. At times as absurd as it is strikingly plausible, the film plays with notions of truth and reality while asking us to consider all possible futures.

--

Giants’ Anatomy will be on view at Arnolfini, Bristol from 28 February — 31 March 2026.

Giants' Anatomy (2026) has been commissioned as part of FVU New Takes, an FVU initiative supported by Jerwood Foundation. FVU is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.