Hantao Li
Giants' Anatomy (2026)

We are excited to present Giants’ Anatomy by Hantao Li on FVU Watch, one 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.

You can now read an accompanying essay by visual artist and writer Gary Zhexi Zhang, situating Giants' Anatomy as a near-future reflection on dismantling industry, mourning labour, and turning industrial history into spectacle and museum culture. Read HERE.

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

Audio description and captioning is available, please click the cogwheel button on the control bar.

Have you watched Giants' Anatomy, or engaged with any of the other works commissioned as part of FVU New Takes on FVU Watch? Fill out our Audience Survey to be in with a chance of winning a £50 Gift Card for Everyman Cinemas (UK-wide). 

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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.