Hantao Li's 2026 FVU-commissioned work Giants' Anatomy is screening as part of London Burning Theatre Festival: As We All Lay Dying at 2-3pm. London Burning is a two-day festival unfolding life and death across theatre, sound art, and performative, immersive installations supported by RCA and UAL.
About the work
The oil industry is one of the primary contributors to carbon emissions, directly accelerating global warming and causing sea levels to rise. Meanwhile, the offshore oil rig industry has been in steep decline since 2014. From over 5,500 platforms in operation in 1981, the number had dropped to fewer than 2,000 by 2023.
Cromarty Firth, known as Scotland’s 'oil rig graveyard', hosts numerous decommissioned rigs, their future use uncertain. Many of these platforms are sent to ship-breaking yards thousands of miles away, where the environmental impact of these actions can be conveniently forgotten about, while others sit idle, awaiting 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. The film asks, 'When the infrastructure loses its function, does it still hold meaning?'
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.
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Giants' Anatomy (2026) has been commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella as part of FVU New Takes. FVU New Takes is supported by Jerwood Foundation. Exhibition partner: Arnolfini, Bristol. FVU and Arnolfini are supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
