CFGNY

This publication is the first monographic overview of CFGNY's influential practice. Founded in 2016 as an ongoing dialogue on the intersection of art, fashion, and identity, the artist collective composed of Daniel Chew, Ten Izu, Kirsten Kilponen, and Tin Nguyen continually returns to the term "vaguely Asian": an understanding of racial identity as a specific cultural experience combined with the experience of being perceived as other. In addition to using fashion as a readymade, CFGNY's practice spans mediums such as video, performance, architectural installation, and sculpture, researching the ways in which material assemblage and reproduction play a part in the formation and racialization of such "vaguely Asian" identities. CFGNY does not wish to represent what it means to be "Asian" in the singular; instead, it encourages the visualization of the countless ways one is able to be in the plural. The publication will be divided into five sections, each focused around one CFGNY collection. Each section will open with the full lookbook from the relevant collection, followed by an essay that addresses the performances, exhibitions, and other projects that occurred in that "era" of CFGNY. The essays will be accompanied by documentation of exhibitions, performances, and events, "behind the scenes" photography, archival ephemera, and other material as illustrations.