Chronus Art Center (CAC) is pleased to present Holding A Kitchen Knife to Cut the Internet Cable, an exhibition by the young Chinese artist MIAO Ying.
Holding A Kitchen Knife to Cut the Internet Cable is the third exhibition of a series of parallel online projects under the theme of Folklore of the Cyber World organized by Chronus Art Center, the new media art partner institution of the Chinese Pavilion, la Biennale di Venezia 2015. Folklore of the Cyber World extends the Other Future envisioned by the Chinese Pavilion to cyberspace, revealing the vigor and brio of the younger generation of Chinese artists in their critical engagement with the pervasive media society and creative use of new technologies.
MIAO Ying is a veteran of URLs; she finds loopholes to navigate the labyrinths of walls and fences in cyberspace, poking open a bit over here, hacking a crack over there, YouTube videos and dancing gifs are her accomplices in subverting the politics and commerce of the all mighty electronic sovereign.
Holding A Kitchen Knife to Cut the Internet Cable
MIAO Ying | GIF Animation and Browser-based Webpage
Duration: 2015.7.8-8.7
“Holding a Kitchen Knife to Cut Internet Cable” is inspired by a Chinese Internet poem found online, translated into “Chinglish”, the other half of the poem reads “a road with lightning sparks”. Poems like this, used as online signatures by Chinese Internet citizens ubiquitous across the Chinese Internet were used by the artist. Displaying certain wisdom and a taking joy in romanticised melancholy, the poems ultimately are representative of the romantic relationship the artist has with the Chinese internet. There are 10 web-based works. The first six of them are gifs and the other four are browser-based webpages that are composed of gif animations, still images, and video-sharing website players. The works in the show touch on issues regarding the unique Chinese Internet environment which has been evolving and growing.
MIAO Ying gives the viewer insight into the Chinese Internet in a humorous way; the visual language born from the internet, and its effect on how it has created Chinese netizens that are able to self censor yet still have fun in the Internet realm.
About the Artist
MIAO Ying is a net artist who currently resides on The Internet, Chinese Internet (the Great Fire Wall) and her smartphone. In 2007, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the New Media Arts department from the China Academy of Fine Arts. In 2009, she received her MFA from the School of Art and Design at Alfred University, USA, with a focus on Electronic Integrated Arts.
She has been focusing on Internet art with an emphasis on the Chinese Internet since 2007, when she made The Blind Spot (words censored from google.cn), shown in the Western New York Biannual. Her works have a strong awareness of the ever-changing technology of our time, the relationship of body and machine, and reality versus simulation. A pioneer, utilising experimental formats such as gifs, APPs, Social Media and Second Life, the artist seeks to find an icon for the Internet age.
MIAO Ying explores in a humorous way the visual language born from the Internet, and its effect on how it changes us as we interact with it. She has shown her gifs, APPs, videos, digital prints, artist books and interactive installations in mainland China, Taiwan, Europe, the United States, on the Internet and the virtual world of Second Life.
“Folklore of the Cyber World” Series Artists and Exhibition Durations
*Please click "read more" to enter into the online exhibitions.
SHEN Xin: Rhythms of Work - Means Something to You
2015.5.8-6.7
GUO XI & ZHANG Jianling: The Grand Voyage
2015.6.8-7.7
MIAO Ying: Holding A Kitchen Knife to Cut the Internet Cable
2015.7.8-8.7
WANG Yuyang: Lettering
2015.8.8-9.13
YE Funa: Nail to Go
2015.9.14-10.16
LIN Ke: Lens from E-world
2015.10.17-11.22
