Patty Chang's video installation delves into the concept of Shangri-La, the utopian hamlet of James Hilton's literary classic, Lost Horizon. Hilton's novel, and the subsequent Frank Capra film (1937), popularized the idea of Shangri-La far and wide. In 1997, a rural town in Southern China, close to the Tibetan border, declared itself the basis for Hilton's Shangri-La and instigated a fierce marketing battle with a dozen other towns, until the Chinese government ultimately named a single town Shangri-La. Chang's piece investigates the contradictions of such a place, which is simultaneously real and imaginary, and the experience of making a physical journey to an imaginary destination.

The exhibition was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, May 20-Aug. 20, 2006.