Written by Damariz Damken for Performance Is Alive, July 2019
”As Latin American artists Voliakovsky and Franz collectively position their political critiques by exercising their autonomy to transform the human body as praxis. They juxtapose their approaches to performance in conjunction to create complementary pieces that dialogue with one another, while simultaneously opening a conversation with the audience. Upon entering the performance space, the artists keep themselves out of plain sight, leaving the audience to wander a seemingly empty room and instead observe video recordings of each artist undergoing independent performances. These videos in themselves reflect a critical argument of the artists’ line of work and practice, and present yet another layer beneath which the artists choose to conceal themselves. Brazilian artist, Julha Franz, situates her piece from within a boxed space elusive to the eye as just another black wall in the gallery. However, upon closer observation, one notices light escaping from cautiously carved peeping-holes that outline a figure: one hole at eye level, two in the chest resembling nipples, and one centered at groin level. The viewer is compelled to find the so-far hidden artists and in looking through the holes, satiates their curiosity.”
Written by Henrique Menezes for Ramona, July 2019
”These young artists are studying the Emergenyc program at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics (New York University). Their surnames, Russian on the one hand and German on the other, could be evidence of European nationality. Incorrect. Natacha was born in Argentina and Julha in Brazil. Both are connected through a "Latin American identity", hidden behind their avatars created digitally but real at the same time.”
Written by Cori Hutchinson for White Hot Magazine, May 2019
”The unsteady nature of “reality” as it is perceived (seen) is influenced by a number of things: memory, ideology, and eye ability among them. Briard deconstructs the site, which we each approach with distinct optics, to shapes and color spectrum. The uncanny form of the Joshua trees themselves reinforces this effect. Joshua trees, the common name of the species, are really yucca. In an interview with Magnolia Pauker, Briard points to the temperamental “common knowledge” view of the world, which extends to language here as well.”
Written for MapMagazine, July 2019
“The following text describes elements of the group’s recent research which culminated in an event at the AC Institute, New York, on 10 April 2019. Selected works containing ideas of atmosphere, visibility and surveillance, were presented in the darkened space to a live audience.”
Written by Jaclyn Jaconetta for The Brooklyn Rail, October 2017
“Tiffany Jaeyeon Shin's exhibition Like Water and Oil Never Assimilating (2017) is simultaneously an education on racist American history and an ongoing effort to tend to its casualties. Shin is a Korean-Canadian-American artist, curator, and community organizer. In her exhibition at the AC Institute, masses of news clippings set the tone, situating the work in instances of historical racism.”
Written by Benjamin Sutton for Hyperallergic, September 2017
“the legacy of eroticized Asian imagery and characters in science fiction will be followed by a screening of moving-image artworks that use Afrofuturism, Asiafuturism, and other empowering cybernetic iconographies to expose systems of oppression and exploitation.”
Written by Antwaun Sargent for Vice, July 2017
“as viewers walk through the space, which takes on the real dimensions of a home, they'll see themselves physically and will recall, through the artworks Morris created, their own memories of the happiness and melancholy of home, memory and personal identity. In this way, viewers become a part of the landscape Morris created at the AC Institute.”
Written by Raphael Rosen for the Wall Street Journal, March 2013
“Rhode Island artist China Blue’s new sonic installation, “Photini (Biomimetic Fireflies),” is on view at the AC Institute in Chelsea until March 16.”
Written by Adam Gopnik for the New Yorker, March 2010
“The television-for-plants project has been installed in a fifth-floor space at the AC Institute, on West Twenty-seventh Street, in Chelsea. A collection of houseplants—the kind of rubber plants that your great-aunt watered and tended—rest on the floor, thoughtfully regarding a video on a screen above their heads. The video shows, on a six-and-a-half-minute loop, a beautiful Italian sky, which passes into night, complete with romantic Italian moon, and then returns to dawn. Visitors are urged to bring their own plants to watch the show.”