CFGNY’s tenth anniversary runway meets performance brought together artists, chefs, and creatives.
This past Friday night the Ontarian smog cleared, the temperature dropped, and the forecasted rain disappeared just in-time for NYC’s Vaguely Asian cabal to turn out for CFGNY’s tenth anniversary show. Titled “CFG-20260717” and produced with support from Amant and The Kitchen, the stage was an empty lot in Bushwick with folding chairs encircling two box trucks, itself surrounded by plywood scaffolding and plastic sheets resembling a garage. LED monitors affixed to the trucks displayed a distorted Duchampian-stuffed toy that held our gaze. Conceived by an art collective who works with rather than in fashion, this is clearly not a traditional show.
Affectionately dubbed, “a school play” by publicist and longtime friend of the brand Cynthia Leung, the night kicked off with monologues by CFGNY’s Daniel Chew, Ten Izu, and Tin Nguyen on the first mass consumer video camera called the Portapak. Then, the Kitchen curator, Angelique Rosales Salgado emerged to emcee the show. Wearing a perfectly cut grey plaid skirt suit with a high thigh slit and no undershirt, Rosales Salgado came out like a baddie version of Andrea Fraser in Museum Highlights: A Gallery Talk, 1989–and just like Fraser, they shut us up and taught a lesson.
“The point of being a collective has revealed itself over this decade —- to grow and work together, learn from each other as a chosen family,” said Izu. And that chosen family, along with new additions came through for the night. Switching from the live feed to slides, Rosales Salgado walked the lot while delivering an art history lecture in a staccato cadence highlighting video performances from The Kitchen’s archive. For artists like Joan Jonas and Shigeko Kubota, the Portapak was revolutionary for how it could be used to cheaply communicate their thoughts and desires. These feelings are materialized by a performer in a square grid vest and briefs, who stumbled around the set furiously brushing their hair while declaring “art is beautiful” and “artists must be beautiful.” Leung then appeared to show off their limbs and hair by bending into warrior pose while a third designer stumbled and twitched like a party-goer putting their best foot forward in one-legged chaps. These colliding movements and talks are meant to show the instability of one’s daily performance of gender, taste, and race.
An unknown interloper interrupted the talk stating “video is venereal disease.” Additional lines from the final stanza of Video Poem (1974) by Shigeko Kubota like “video is vacant apartment” pierce through. Rosales Salgado vamps with annoyance and seeks out the encroacher. The sun sets as the speakers find each other and ponder lesbianism before the third act begins.
Images courtesy CFGNY and Amant, Brooklyn, NY. Photos: David Brandon Geeting
Then, it was time to reactivate the live streams. Sounds by Lydo started to bubble over as models walked out wearing slip dresses with plushie tumors, shimmery mobster blouses, bondage inspired button downs, and polos with snap buttons open to release sleeves and the chest. Industry star Ken Leung, BONG chef Chakriya Un, and artist and twins Lotus Kang and Hanna Hur appeared in a series of sheer feather tufted skirts, pants, and jumpsuits. Editor Blake Abbie stopped, stared, and rubbed his face in front of a collection of cameras at the center of the show in a masc leather jacket and trousers. Photographer Huy Luong closed the show in a plastic suit striped using analog tape for stripes and fringe that blew behind him as he walked. Drones that had been filming the scene overhead fly away, and the video cuts out.
The crowd flowed into the set, starting the party. Over beats by DJ Bobby Beethoven, skinny cigarette smoke imported from China and Japan filled the air as models and friends danced and caught up. A friend remarked that they typically feel alienated looking at the models in a fashion show, but since the casting was full of community members and friends, it was easy to imagine the looks in their lives.
As the free beer and wine was mobbed and quickly drained, leaving only mini water bottles, a rack of archival CFGNY clothes were being calmly picked at by those with fat wallets. Rosales Salgado, still in the sexy suit, proclaimed that tonight the brand stood for “Cunt Fab Gay Now Yesterday.” Chef of Ha’s Dac Biet, Anthony Ha, held court, looking like head boss ordering a hit on someone clad in a shimmering top, sunglasses, and queue braids. Plans for afters were passed around. Leung posed for pictures for a fan before quietly slipping away. Over two thirds of the original crowd were still mingling when the staff kindly kicked us out.
“So much of [the] performance relies on true friends, people coming together on the runway where we’re trying to capture the magical feeling of actually being together,” said Chew of the evening. Nguyen added, “That’s the purpose of our show: we all experience rising up together and it’s intense, exhausting but fulfilling and exciting. It’s about creating this moment together, a social sculpture.” This “social sculpture” enveloped us all and was evident before the event when the VIP line was three times as long as the standard line with everyone dressed up and buzzing. Everyone felt the “production of sociality.” No one was ready for the night to end.
Images courtesy of CFGNY. Images 1–4: Photos by Rachel Keane. Images 5–6 courtesy of CFGNY; Amant, Brooklyn, NY; and The Kitchen, New York, NY. Photos by Pablo Gonzalez.
