Cyberfem Networks

Curatorial statement

Cyberfem Networks explores how feminist artists have used the internet itself as a medium to question power, identity, and authorship. Each work in this exhibition depends on networked systems to exist, demonstrating how the web can be both a site of experimentation and critique.

Cornelia Sollfrank’s Female Extension (1997) intervenes directly in online systems of authority, generating fictitious female artist identities to reveal and critique gender bias within digital and institutional networks. Martine Neddam’s Mouchette (1996–ongoing) creates an unsettling online persona that engages users in questions of anonymity, consent, and identity. VNS Matrix’s All New Gen (1993–94) presents a playful, provocative cyberfeminist vision, reclaiming early web aesthetics.

Around them, the network widens. Olia Lialina’s hypertext and Shu Lea Cheang’s Brandon show the browser itself becoming a body that splits and is watched. The collectives Old Boys Network and subRosa show cyberfeminism as an organized practice, not only a style. Legacy Russell’s Glitch Feminism and Morehshin Allahyari’s She Who Sees the Unknown carry those questions into social media and 3D-scanned heritage.

These works highlight the internet’s dual role as medium and collaborator, demonstrating how cyberfeminist net art has historically used network structures to challenge social hierarchies, redistribute authorship, and imagine alternative forms of online presence and community.

The exhibition is arranged as a network, not a list. Every work is wired to the threads it shares with others. Select a thread to follow it, or open a work to read about it.