Need an online break from the dominance of multi-billion dollar businesses like Google and Facebook on the internet? Set your virtual private network (VPN) to mainland China, where these websites and apps are blocked, for a relaxing online retreat!

This is the satirical concept behind Shanghai–and New York–based artist Miao Ying’s Hardcore Digital Detox, the first work in M+’s new online series of digital commissions. The work is a playful reflection on both the ‘Chinternet’ and World Wide Web, using the concept of a wellness online retreat to comment on issues of global capitalism, online propaganda, and media democracy.

We invite you to explore the work deeper. Read the curatorial statement written by M+ Curator of Moving Image Ulanda Blair.

Miao Ying is a Shanghai– and New York–based artist. Her work has been shown at the 12th Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, 2018), Shanghai Beat (Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, 2018), All I know is what’s on the internet (The Photographers' Gallery, London, 2018), .com/.cn (co-presented by MoMA PS1 and K11 Art Foundation, 2017), After Us (co-presented by New Museum and K11 Art Foundation, 2017), The New Normal—Art and China in 2017 (Ullens Center For Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2017), Secret Surface (Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2016), and Holding a Kitchen Knife to Cut the Internet Cable (Chinese Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2015).