Dian Joy

This exhibition is a conspiracy. A fanfiction. A myth. A copypasta. A mutated reality that distributes its truth by any means possible. Operating in the dystopian struggle between fact and fiction, disinformation and information, fake and real, Alexandria’s Genesis situates itself between beliefs, insecurities and desires to form a fanfiction of a fanfiction.

Once relegated to the obscure corners of the internet, the myth of Alexandria's Genesis has circulated on internet forums and social media, evolving into many forms. A rumoured genetic anomaly, transforming people into long-living “perfect human beings” with violet eyes and flawless pale skin, supposedly gave those with the condition strength and vitality. Created in 1998 by Daria fanfic writer Cameron Aubernon to explain her Mary Sues characters, it gained traction online, until it was eventually debunked.

Dian Joy takes this myth and remixes it again, isolating imagery and injecting new elements that destabilise its original form.

Approaching this viral myth as a hyper-referential text—a meme that mutates and replicates—Dian fills the gallery with its persuasive logic, roaming from screen to screen, creating an entangled web of deceit, desire, and fantasy. By pushing the myth to new extremes, she exposes the persistent logic of whiteness beneath the fantasy of genetic perfection—a fiction that refuses to quit.

Alexandria’s Genesis is a study of how ideas spread in the digital age. Dian’s work reveals how the myth and similar viral phenomena mutate to survive within algorithmic systems. What began as a fanfiction evolves into a viral meme, propelled by the internet. In this exhibition Dian invites us to consider how digital content reflects our desires and serves as a disciplinary force—policing how we see ourselves and exist within these systems.

—Nora O Murchú