Shanzhai Lyric is a body of research focusing on radical logistics and linguistics through the prism of technological aberration and nonofficial cultures. The project takes inspiration from the experimental English of shanzhai t-shirts made in China and proliferating across the globe to examine how the language of counterfeit uses mimicry, hybridity, and permutation to both revel in and reveal the artifice of global hierarchies. Through an ever-growing archive of poetry-garments, Shanzhai Lyric explores the potential of mis-translation and nonsense as utopian world-making (breaking) and has previously taken the form of poetry-lecture, essay, and installation.
In fall of 2020, Shanzhai Lyric founded the Canal Street Research Association in an empty storefront on Canal Street, New York City’s counterfeit epicenter, delving into the cultural and material ecologies of the street and its long history as a site that probes the limits of ownership and authorship. The office and its contents are currently in storage at MoMA/PS1 as part of Greater New York where the movement of objects from Long Island City to ongoing serves as the basis of meandering research surfacing flows of goods and ideas while tracing buried currents and currencies.
Introduced and moderated by Alex Kitnick, Assistant Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at Bard College.
CCS Bard Speaker Series Each semester CCS Bard hosts a program of lectures by leading artists, curators, art historians, and critics, situating the school and museum’s concerns within the larger context of contemporary art production and discourse. Speakers are selected primarily by second-year graduate students and also by faculty and staff. All lectures are free and open, and will also be documented through audio recordings that reside in the CCS Bard Library & Archives. This semester, some talks will be in-person and others will be online
Accessibility for Public Programs
Recordings
All our programs are recorded and made available through our Library & Archives upon request. To inquire about a recording, please contact ccs@bard.edu.
American Sign Language Interpretation
ASL-English interpretation is available for public programs upon request with two weeks advance notice. To place a request, please contact ccs@bard.edu. Relay and voice calls welcome.
Verbal Description
Verbal description is available for public programs upon request with two weeks advance notice. To place a request, please contact ccs@bard.edu. Relay and voice calls welcome.
Captioning
When public programs are held over Zoom, live transcription is available .