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Joyce Yu-Jean Lee

The 10 Weirdest AFC Stories of 2016

by Michael Anthony Farley on December 30, 2016
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Equal parts surreal and horrifying, 2016 was basically an Hieronymus Bosch painting come to life. Given how apocalyptic and strange every headline from the mainstream news media has been this past year, it’s easy to overlook all the weird shit that went down in the art world.

But this year was chock-full of crazy art world stories, often that intersected with politics. (Remember a few weeks ago, when Madonna charged Art Basel visitors thousands of dollars to watch her grind on a chair while dressed as a clown, covering Britney Spears’ “Toxic” in front of a giant projection of Donald Trump?) It’s hard to even pick a “top 10”, but here’s our best effort to round-up the weirdest art stories we reported on in 2016:

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The Great Firewall of GIFs: Miao Ying’s Chinternet Plus

by Michael Anthony Farley on July 8, 2016
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Currently featured as part of the New Museum’s First Look: New Art Online series, Miao Ying’s “Chinternet Plus” takes on Chinese web censorship, corporate aesthetics, and propaganda with the power of .net art.

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How an Art Exhibition in New York Led to Harassment from Chinese Authorities

by Michael Anthony Farley on February 26, 2016
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This story has all the elements of a 1990s cyberpunk thriller: hackers, foreign government agents, and multinational corporations. But this is terrifying reality in 2016. A collaboration between American and Chinese activists, artists, and programmers has resulted in FIREWALL, a pop-up internet cafe/art installation that lays bare the censored version of the internet mainland Chinese citizens have access to. When visitors search a term at one of the consoles, they see the results in both Google and state-controlled Chinese equivalent Baidu.. That gesture appears innocent enough—after all, FIREWALL merely presents the internet as curated by the Chinese state. Those very censors, however, seem pretty unhappy about it.

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This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Hacking Dystopias

by Michael Anthony Farley on February 22, 2016
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This weekend’s must-see events include a lot of AFC’s friends and favs, from Friday’s discussion on hacktivism as part of Joyce Yu-Jean Lee’s project FIREWALL Internet Cafe to fundraiser events featuring the work of AFC’s own Matthew Leifheit and F.A.G. Bar artist Macon Reed on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. But during the week, do check out solo shows from Leanne Shapton (Tuesday) and Sherrie Levine (Wednesday). Thursday’s all about dystopia, with sci-fi cityscapes by Romain Erkiletlian and found hyper-generic product packaging from Maryam Jafri. Hack on, New York. 

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This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Talking GIFs, Kissing Painting, Watching Dogs

by Michael Anthony Farley on February 16, 2016
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What a week for New York City! From the small gestures aimed at pedestrians, like project space FOUR A.M. in the Lower East Side, to the triumphant return of Jack Early to Chelsea on Thursday night, we’ve got you covered on weeknights. Our very own Paddy Johnson will be speaking at NYU on Friday all about our favorite medium: GIFs. Be sure to pre-register for the event, which has a reception where you can say hi! Then, head to Bushwick for a night of group and two-person shows at neighboring artist-run spaces Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Transmitter, and Underdonk. Saturday, check out perpetual AFC fav Alex Ebstein’s yoga mat paintings at Ridgewood’s lorimoto. But Sunday might be the day that goes down as one of the weirdest and most fun in the city’s art history: Greater New York artist Hayley Aviva Silverman is mashing-up 1990s disaster cinema with 1830s literature for a theatrical production starring dogs. Let that singular experience marinate on your 35 minute M train ride to Chinatown Soup, where Joyce Yu-Jean Lee’s pop-up cybercafe promises to give us a glimpse of what the internet looks like in China (hint: very different) plus snacks!

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