A collective of friends and collaborators based in New York, CFGNY makes work that ranges from sculpture, fashion and performance to photography and publishing. Frequently responding to the notion of the ‘vaguely Asian’, CFGNY explores the infinitely plural ways in which identity and value are constructed, circulated and re-constructed through commerce and culture.
With Hot Wheels gallery at Frieze London, CFGNY presents a new body of work utilizing cardboard – a material synonymous with trade and the disposable – and porcelain, an Asian luxury good that was furiously counterfeited in Europe. The sculptures combine casts of dollar-store knick-knacks with details drawn from East Coast American vernacular architecture and from historical British landscape paintings.
To continue this dialogue between the collective’s work and British heritage, Frieze Week commissioned London-based photographer and director Joyce NG to make a selection of CFGNY’s garments and recontextualize them within her own perspective on the British Asian experience. The resulting images both mine established tropes and aesthetics and celebrate cultural identity as an elusive, in-between condition.
This article first appeared in Frieze Week London 2024 under the title ‘Against The Stream’.
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Frieze London and Frieze Masters, 9 – 13 October 2024, The Regent’s Park.
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Main image: Apron – CFGNY Sunglasses – BLESS (via Cool Plus), Bra – American Apparel (via HAUT), Shorts – Skims (via HAUT). Photograph: Joyce NG
