Tues 3/30 6pm PDT: AFK
AFK Closing & Virtual Artist Talk

In conversation with:
Johnny Forever Nawracaj @joachim_magdalena
Gretchen Andrew @gretchenandrew
Rudy Falagan @poptropican
Panteha Abareshi @pantehart
Sydney Shavers @sydney_shavers
Paulson Lee @hellopaulson
Lanéya Billingsley @billie0cean
Sound by Margo Padilla @margotpaulinepadilla
Curated by Casey Kauffmann @uncannysfvalley

AFK stands for “Away From Keyboard.” In Glitch Feminism Legacy Russell advocates for the use of the term instead of IRL meaning “In Real Life” because today there is no separation between real and digital life. Our online life is as real and impactful as any other aspect of our lived experience, when we are not inhabiting our digital self it’s not gone just simply away. This exhibition is a celebration of the marginalized other, the work in it is a form of advocacy that captures the indistinguishable line between online and AFK self-representation. Using digital 3D sculptures, painting, video, collage, and various techniques of appropriation facilitated by online engagement the artists of AFK transform a variety of subjects related to physical and digital embodiment. AFK addresses youtube makeup tutorials, the relationship between the body and architectural landscapes, avatars, gaming, overexposure and popular culture, identity as fetish object, subversive SEO, the nuanced experience of the disabled body, and the self-surveillance promoted in our increasingly digital existence in Covid and beyond.

AFK is inspired by Legacy Russell’s phenomenal manifesto Glitch Feminism. She explains, “The oblique romance of Internet-as-utopia, against this backdrop reality, should not be dismissed as naive. Imbuing digital material with fantasy today is not a retro act of mythologizing; it continues as a survival mechanism.”\\[1\\]

Glitch Feminism offers a contemporary optimistic validation of practices that subvert the corporate structures of the internet to build a better, more inclusive world. In Glitch Feminism Russell defines glitch as an assertion of self-representation, a form of resistance in a world composed of ones and zeros.

Artist talk will take place on twitch: twitch.tv/coaxialarts

Link to the 3D gallery: https://coaxialarts.org/3dgallery/
Special thanks to Ben Vance @buffalovision of FLOAT LAND for 3D integration