Miao Ying's .gif Island Exhibition Explores Internet Culture Through Humor and Absurdity

Miao Ying's exhibition .gif Island, reviewed in January & February 2015, delves into internet art with a focus on contemporary digital culture's pervasive and diverse nature. The show features works like Is it you are looking for?! (2014), which plays Lionel Richie's 1983 song Hello via a YouTube link, juxtaposing its 1984 music video with themes of attachment. LAN Love Poem .gifs (2014) overlay censored website notices with whimsical, colorful text, highlighting government censorship and poetic futility. APP-nosis (2013–14) includes metal pyramids with iPhones suspended above cushions printed with Apple ad extracts, exploring attention and detachment in screen-based interactions. A glittering installation, #mememe (2014), displays fake Apple accessories and selfie-enhanced devices, critiquing ownership and self-image desires. Tech Abstractionism (2014) presents digital prints scaled from Apple ad reflections, offering direct commentary on advertising aesthetics. Landscape.gif (2013) features reclining chairs with emoji towels and touch-screen devices showing animated gifs of whimsical imagery, surrounded by wires and paper with the Chinese meme Zan. The exhibition, noted for its low-key sublimity, examines human sensibility through digital technology, blending kitsch, ephemerality, and absurdity in net culture. It was first published in ArtReview's January & February 2015 issue.