Established as the fictional office of poetic research unit Shanzhai Lyric, the Canal Street Research Association leads a Canal Street walking tour 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.
Canal Street Research Association was founded in 2020 in an empty storefront on Canal Street, New York’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 association repurposes underused real estate as spaces for gathering ephemeral histories, mapping local lore, and tracing the flows and fissures of capital. The office is operated by Shanzhai Lyric (Ming Lin and Alex Tatarsky), a poetic research and roving archival unit that take inspiration from 山寨 (shanzhai or counterfeit) goods to examine how bootlegs use mimicry, hybridity, and permutation to both revel in and reveal the artifice of global hierarchies. They collaborate frequently with architectural collective common room, and with spaces both unofficial and official including MoMA PS1, Sculpture Center, Artists Space, Storefront for Art & Architecture, Canal Projects, and Abrons Arts Center.