Artist Statement 刨作自述

The title is inspired by the internet macro series meme which uses the phrase, “meanwhile in….”, where an image is shown depicting something absurd and stereotypical about a certain country or place. 

The show contains six web based works that touch on issues regarding the Chinese internet environment and how it evolves alongside the “over the fire wall” internet. From one side of the wall, the Chinese internet appears to be a barren wasteland, yet despite it’s limitations, it has been evolving and growing, which makes the Chinese internet unique. Just as over the wall, new memes are created depending on what underground culture decides to do with mainstream culture; the same holds true for the Chinese internet side. The limit of the Chinese internet is what sets it free.

“Meanwhile in China” gives the viewer insight into the Great Fire Wall in a humorous way, the visual language born from the internet, and it’s effect on how it has created Chinese netizens that are able to self censor, yet still have fun in the internet realm. 

网友网将为您呈现来自艺术家苗颖的网络个展——好爱，感觉再也不会累了。标题灵感来源于中国本地网络用语“累觉不爱”。这次个展包含了6件以网页为媒介的作品，这些作品关注当代中国网络生态环境，“墙”是在的，“墙内”的世界也不是“墙外”世界想的那样荒芜，而是随限制而发展和进化，互成镜像，这也是中国网络独特之处。苗颖用她惯有的幽默的表达方式，轻松或故作轻松的向我们展示与“墙外”的世界一样，这里也有地下文化和主流文化碰撞下所产生的网络流行语以及网络文化背后惊人的创造力，在人类已经无法阻挡的网络时代，中国网民在自我克制中又几近狂喜。

The first three pieces of Meanwhile… in China are a series of gifs called “LAN Love Poem.gif”, which are made from snapshots of censored websites (such as Google, Facebook and YouTube) combined with local Chinese internet poems titled  “Holding a Kitchen Knife Cut Internet Cable”, “A Road with Lightning Sparks“, “To be Missed is Another Kind of Beauty“, and “When Cigarettes Fall in Love with Matches the Cigarette gets Burned“. Each poem has been translated from Chinese to English and are made with Taobao style 3D animated gif wording, along with 8 bit internet landscapes in the background. These particular works show a romantic relationship between the artist and the Chinese Internet.

The second half of this collection first includes a piece called“iPhone garbage“, which is composed of videos, gifs and still images. One video is a screenshot from the Chinese website Bilibili and is of a remix of the original video made to promote a Chinese smart phone brand called, Jin Li. In this video, two men dressed in police uniforms shout out how good their products are, while live streaming comments float over their face. Directly under this video player is a gif animation of an Apple logo reflecting in a pond made by the artist herself. The other video in the background is a remix of the official apple iPhone 6 commercial excluding it’s original soundtrack.  In the video there are close ups seen on the screen of the iPhones showing how “joyful” people are to use this phone. In addition, on the right top hand side of the page, there is a gif animation of water pouring from the bottle through the video player, into the Apple logo pond and finally onto the still image of a real apple already being splashed by water. “Water Apple” or 水货苹果 in Chinese, literally means parallel imported Apple products. These are products that are smuggled on the bodies of people into mainland China so that import taxes can be avoided and the products can then be sold on Taobao or in electronic markets for a more affordable price than buying them in a legitimate Chinese Apple store.

“iPhone garbage” is shown twice in a row because the first video is made using only Youtube embedded videos, which are censored in China. The second following version is made using embedded videos from the popular Chinese streaming site, Youku.com, which load slowly in the West, but are not censored in China. By showing these pieces twice in a row using different sources of the same videos, one can directly experience the divide of the Chinese internet and the rest of the World Wide Web – whether or not you are inside or outside of the Great Firewall.

There are also two duplicate pages (one using YouTube videos, the other using Youku.com videos) for the next in this series called “When SMART and wash-cut-blow meet bilibili“. The first is a screenshot of the Chinese music video called “When smart meets wash-cut-blow” from bilibili.com, while the official music video by Dizzy Wright’s “fashion” plays in the upper left hand corner. SMART or shamate is a subculture in China composed of young migrants from the countryside that remain alienated from the great Urbanization push. Their fashion style is a gawky blend of goth, glam and anime and they are also the largest group of people who are still using internet cafes and local Chinese electric devices. This Chinese music video was originally from a K pop band, but was remixed by a Chinese netizen into a love song about the story of a SMART boy who falls in love with a girl but is worried her family will not like him because he has no class. So he decides to become a salon boy to learn how to cut hair and be fashionable so they can have a sweet life together drinking Coke, Fanta and Wanglaoji (a popular canned tea) everyday. This is one of the most popular videos currently on Bilili.com and because of this, when played on the website, live comments quickly flood and cover the screen, masking the music video itself over time. On the left bottom corner of the page there is a gif and still image of a Fanta can and Wanglaoji cans, as reference to the story of the SMART boy and his love. In the right top hand corner of the page is a fashion model who seemingly looks like she is facing the background picture, which just so happens to be of a crowded and chaotic line of people outside of an Apple store in China.

The final piece in this series is called “So in love, will never feel tired again“ and is a reference to a Chinese internet meme that became viral on a social media site after a boy born in the 90’s first posted, ”so tired, will never love again”/累觉不爱 .  The phrase truly represents modern Chinese people’s common feelings, as mirrored by the SMART subculture, about urban sorrows in a humorous, self-deprecating kind of way. In this piece, the video recording is of a random Netizen’s DIY animation called “i feel bored and made this animation out of this cat emoji, after i made this i feel so tired, will never love again” and is a remix of the original meme: Just when you think you are too tired, you are so in love. The 3D gif words in the background and foreground are made by the artist herself as commentary to celebrate this kind of internet ecstasy. This final pieces uses both YouTube and Youkou.com embedded videos, side by side.

苗颖个展—“与此同时在中国—好爱，感觉不会再累了”由Netizenet/网友网发布。标题灵感来自于网络流行语“与此同时在…”系列—— 一张代表某个地区或国家所正在发生的事件图片并配有”与此同时在…”的黑白粗体文字。这些图片往往是荒诞的或能表现这个地区典型性的图片，故得到广泛流传。

这个个展包括了来自苗颖的8件以网络为媒介的作品，关注中国网络生态已经“墙”文化。从一个层面来看，“墙”里似乎是荒芜的废墟，而然尽管有如此这般的限制，“墙”的另一个层面内还是在不断进化和成长，生机勃勃，这也是中国互联网独特的地方。“墙”内的中国网络和世界其他地方的互联网一样，由亚文化和主流文化冲击下所产生的新的网络词汇被网民不断的创造出来。如媒介一样，一但知道其局限便可以无限自由。中国互联网表面如同悖论般矛盾，在这里，矛就是盾，解药就是需要被解的毒。

“好爱，感觉不会再累了”将通过苗颖的幽默视野带领观者走入防火长城的内部，这种幽默是一种土生土长于互联网的国际语言，在人类已经无法阻挡互联网的今天，中国网民在审查与自我审查之外，用惊人的创造力，在自我克制中又几近狂喜。

“好爱，感觉不会再累了”的前三件作品是一系列叫做“局域网情诗.gif”的gif格式图片。这些gif由被屏蔽的网站的游览器截图（脸书，谷歌，youtube)以及中国本地流行的网络情诗（手拿菜刀砍网线，一路火花带闪电。思念是别样的美丽。当香烟爱上火柴，就注定被伤害。）所组成的。每首诗都有相应地“中式英语”翻译，这些文字和单词是的视觉风格是“山寨”淘宝风格的3D立体旋转字体，背景是8比特的gif风景图。艺术家用情诗来表达了她与中国防火长城之间的浪漫关系。

展览的第二部分是中国互联网荒芜之外的狂欢，这个部分的第一件作品是“iphone垃圾”，由网络播放器（youtube和优酷），gif图片和静止图片组成，整件作品的播放器为你的浏览器。在浏览器中你会看见两个影像，中间的影像内容录制于具有“弹幕”评论功能的视频分享网站bilibili上面的一个热门视频，内容是网友对于国产手机品牌“金立”的推销员的推销视频的重新剪辑，视频中推销员“被”反复嘶吼“iphone就是垃圾”,并细数了iphone的垃圾之处，垃圾造型，垃圾电阻，垃圾芯片，垃圾貂皮，等等。这种无厘头的激烈剪辑，引得网友纷纷弹幕留言被洗脑，虽然剪得很简单粗暴，但还是痴痴看完等。作品的第二个影像是由艺术家重新剪辑的来自于苹果iphone 6 plus的官方宣传视频，有iphone 6 plus的完美模型的特写，人们使用它的时候的笑脸等充满愉悦的画面。在这两个叠加的影像的基础上，在正中的播放器的左边，是一张真实地水果苹果被水冲击的水花四溅的的静止图片，这张图片的右边是由艺术家制作的一个在水池的波纹中抖动的苹果产品logo的倒影，而这个水中苹果gif的右边，也就是浏览器的右上角，是一张源源不断对着中间播放器在倒水的水柱gif图片。流动的水柱和静止的水花，真实地水果苹果和苹果公司的水中倒影logo,池塘与矿泉水瓶子，这些突兀又带有一点联系的图片反复出现了“水”和”苹果”, 暗指“水货苹果”。“水货苹果”指未付关税的偷偷代入的正牌苹果产品，即价格优于中国大陆的“行货”苹果产品。通常由肉体携带的方式带入中国境内并在淘宝上出售，以香港水货最为常见。

作品“iphone垃圾”出现了两次是因为youtube在境内被屏蔽，下一页出现的时候的视频播放器是优酷则可以在“墙”内正常观看，这使得“墙”内外的观看到的东西略有不同，YouTube版本在境内观看时藏有彩蛋，即一张文件无法播放的沮丧脸图标，比观者常识里的无法播放图标要大一些，是艺术家特别制作的。这张图片藏于youtube播放器的背面，故西方的观者只能看到youtube播放器的内容，无法看到这张图片。后面的作品也都分别有“墙”内外两个平行的版本，也以同样原理藏有彩蛋，不再一一解释。

下一个拥有平行版本的作品是“当杀马特遇上洗剪吹遇上哔哩哔哩”，同样是一件基于浏览器饿作品。右下角的影像的内容是来自于具有“弹幕”评论功能的视频分享网站bilibili的”当杀马特遇上洗剪吹“热门视频。左上角播放的是美国饶舌歌手Dizzy Wright的官方音乐录音带”时尚“的重新剪辑版本，即Dizzy Wright反复吟唱”黑鬼（美国白人对黑人的一种蔑称），那才是时尚。”“杀马特/SMART”是中国大陆的一种亚文化，泛指城乡结合部的时尚风格，往往是城市打工者的风格，一种中式日系哥特，他们曾是网吧的最大使用者，山寨iphone的使用者，今天是国产电子产品的买家，用廉价智能手机上传自拍到qq空间的作者，bilibili弹幕的使用者，中国网民，当然不是所有网民，但每个网民心中都有一个“杀马特”。这支”当杀马特遇上洗剪吹“讲述的是一个“杀马特”爱上了一个姑娘，但由于代表社会底层的身份，女孩的父母不接受这份感情，于是“杀马特”痛定思痛决定去学习“洗剪吹”，这样他就可以变得“时尚”和有技能，像外国人那样把头发都烫成卷的，女孩的父母就不会觉得他不时尚，而他掌握了时尚的技能，就能与女孩一起过上幸福的日子，每天喝可乐芬达和王老吉，而将来他们爱情的结晶“李狗蛋”长大了也要学习“洗剪吹”。这首歌是韩国偶像团体歌曲的重新填词，配有这首歌韩国原版的录影带，很快成为“洗脑神曲”，遇上bilibili后马上被网友的“弹幕”吐槽淹没，有时候几乎已经看不到画面本身，“弹幕”中网友们自发将歌词翻译成了英语，俄语，法语等等。在浏览器的左下角，是一张有一组王老吉罐头的照片和从王老吉背后配着Dizzy Wright歌曲的拍子有节奏的“站起”和“蹲下”的一只芬达饮料罐头的gif。在浏览器的右边，是一张带着墨镜的白人女性模特的gif,墨镜下地绳子缓慢的随风飘动。整个浏览器的背景，是一张中国苹果店外里外三层排队购买苹果产品的人群照片。

最后一件作品“好爱，感觉不会再累了”标题源于网络流行语“累觉不爱”，一个90后在网上表示”好累，感觉再也不会爱了“，随机被网友疯传，简称为”累觉不爱“来呼应其他网络四字成语，如”喜大普奔“等。这个影像来自于一位网友，表示自己已经无聊到用表情做了一个视频，在视频的开始他/她感叹到”好累，感觉不会再爱了“。这个视频是用一个低像素的略显猥琐的猫的一系列表情，来配合一首口水歌的歌词，歌词内容是一个少女的略带怨念和无奈地自我鼓励，鼓励自己不怕黑，不怕蟑螂，麻痹亦是一种勇敢。这种怨怨的牢骚下包含的却是深深的留恋与痴痴的爱，就像中国网民对中国互联网的爱，正当你“累觉不爱”的时候，却正好是“爱觉不累”。

这件作品只出现了一次，境外的观众将看到两块对称的堆积起来的播放器窗口，而境内的观众将只看到右下角堆积的优酷播放器窗口，左上部的youtube播放器在境内将变成透明从而不对称。