Post-Internet Explorations: From Virtual Worlds to NFTs (2015–2022)

As the 2010s turned into the 2020s, FriendsWithYou embraced new digital platforms as extensions of their long-running interest in play, connection, and immersive experience. One of their most thoughtful experiments in this realm was the 2015 virtual reality project in Miami, Light Spirit, developed with Funktronic Labs and released using SteamVR's room-scale technology. The piece invited users into a serene, otherworldly space where they could interact with a luminous, shifting entity: a spirit-like blob with the simple facial expressions that the art collective is known for. Stripped of physical constraints, their characters came alive, offering a deeply sensory experience that aligned with the ethos of Post-Internet Art: blending digital tools with real emotional engagement.

But not all digital ventures carried the same clarity of intent. In 2022, FriendsWithYou launched an NFT project called fRiENDSiES, selling customizable characters marketed as future-ready companions for games and digital experiences. The project raised millions, but within a year, it had stalled. Updates stopped, development was paused, and communication broke down. Buyers who had been promised physical rewards reported delays, unexpected shipping costs, and refunds issued under pressure. Some accused the artists of abandoning the project altogether. What had begun as a hopeful experiment in digital community instead left many feeling misled, a "rug pull." Unlike the joy and empathy that characterize much of FriendsWithYou's work, fRiENDSiES became an unfortunate chapter... one marked by mismanagement, unmet expectations, and real harm to those who had trusted the vision.

Still, even amid the fallout, the duo continued to produce some of their most beautiful physical installations, reaffirming the strength of their work in the public, tangible realm. In 2019, their beloved icon Little Cloud popped up in various forms, including a delightful appearance at the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas (March 2019), where the Macy's balloon was temporarily re-installed for a public event. The cloud had become a sort of ambassador for the brand: a compact symbol of “light, tranquility, and unconditional love” recognizable to many.

In 2021, FriendsWithYou mounted “Happy World” in Hong Kong, one of their largest international showcases since Happy Rainbow. In partnership with the Hong Kong Tourism Board, they sent their characters on a romp across the city's landmarks. For weeks, Hong Kong residents saw adorable beings (like Little Cloud, Rainbow Worm, Jelly, Hug Bug, or Peanut Butter) appear on trams, ferries, and parks. The centerpiece was a giant Little Cloud inflatable greeting the public in the West Kowloon Art Park (with the stunning skyline as backdrop). This project ingeniously combined physical art with digital outreach: flash mob videos and AR (augmented reality) experiences were produced alongside the installations. In other words, FriendsWithYou orchestrated a kind of transmedia scavenger hunt of joy. “We hope our collection can spread a message of harmony and joy – ingredients of life needed in every corner of the world right now,” the artists shared, noting it was their first event of such remarkable scale in Asia. The choice of Hong Kong in 2021, amid pandemic-era challenges, indeed carried a healing intention – to remind an isolated world of play, togetherness, and color. The image of Little Cloud drifting over Victoria Harbour, cheerful against the blue sky, became an emblem of hope.

FriendsWithYou's characters come to life against the Hong Kong skyline, September 2021. Little Cloud (center) and friends like Jelly (left) and Hug Bug (right) spread their message of joy in the West Kowloon Art Park. (Photo: Business Wire)

Back home in the U.S., Borkson and Sandoval also deepened their engagement with healing environments and public art. A significant milestone was the 2023 opening of “Little Cloud Dream,” a permanent installation in the lobby of the Guerin Children's pediatric unit at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. In this work, a cluster of gently glowing Little Cloud sculptures hover overhead in a calming sky-blue room, creating a soothing atmosphere for sick children and their families. The piece functions as a therapeutic distraction, a night-light of optimism in a medical setting. It is a direct realization of FriendsWithYou's original promise to “help the everyday person cope”​– here, easing the anxiety of hospital visits by offering something soft, bright, and reassuring to look at. Doctors at Cedars-Sinai noted the positive impact such art can have on pediatric care, aligning with research that art and play reduce stress in healing processes. For FriendsWithYou, this was a full-circle moment: their once humble toy-like creations had become literal beacons of hope in a place of need. Similarly, in Miami Beach in 2022, they installed “Starchild,” a permanent public sculpture commissioned by the city. Starchild is a massive abstract star form with two eyes, painted in orange – a new guardian for Miami's residents and visitors, spreading the gospel of unity in the very city where FriendsWithYou was born two decades prior. Such works signal that even as the duo conquers cyberspace and media, they remain committed to the physical communal spaces – city parks, hospitals – where human connection is most directly felt.

The year 2022 also saw a reflective turn inward with an exhibition titled “Quantum Garden” at Gavlak Gallery in Palm Beach. In this gallery show, FriendsWithYou presented new sculptures in materials like bronze and ceramic, indicating a maturing exploration of form. The pieces were still whimsical: a bronze tower of smiling minions here, a wall-mounted clay relief of a cosmic scene there... But the press release revealed deeper conceptual roots. Quantum Garden was framed as the launch of a “generative era” for FriendsWithYou, one in which they explicitly set out to design “a paradigm for new systems of belief.” They even coined the term “open-source spirituality”​, positing their art as a platform where people could partake in shared rituals without dogma or hierarchy, unified only by the pursuit of magic, luck, and friendship. In this vision, Earth itself is imaginatively renamed “Ocean,” symbolizing fluid unity: a place where past, present, and future merge and everyone contributes to a collective spiritual well-being. If this sounds lofty, it certainly is. FriendsWithYou, now with decades of experience under their belts, were articulating a kind of manifesto: to peel away the rigid structures of traditional religion and replace them with a playful, participatory spirituality open to all. It's a culmination of their life's work so far, and a hint at their future direction. The Quantum Garden artworks, with their polished surfaces and mythic titles, invited comparisons to modernist icons like Brancusi or even contemporaries like Jeff Koons (who similarly uses high-gloss materials and archetypal forms). But true to form, Borkson and Sandoval imbued them with narrative and warmth – a Tower of Minion (2018) or a Rainbow World Flag (2020) – ensuring that even as they step into more formal gallery sculpture, their pieces remain friends to the viewer, not untouchable idols.