Gogo Graham presents the fall winter 2023 collection in New York via an installation at Lubov Gallery.
Collection Notes
The world is flat. The cat in the cage paces relentlessly back and forth, treading the same path on top of a strategically placed log in its enclosure. Tamed into submission by monotony, forgetting the feeling of what it was to be itself, beautiful and feared, survival rooted in bloodlust.
Faces press themselves against the cold glass, hot, heavy breaths, exhales of anticipation revoked as the cat continues to pace. Disenchanted, pity arises, and palms come up to the glass in an attempt to provoke, but realistically, no one wants to be prey. The cat continues to pace, and the log heaves, silently splintering beneath its weight.
This season, Gogo Graham presents Birthday Boy, a collection of eveningwear garments displayed on a series of 12 lifesize dolls handmade by Gogo. Opening an investigation into the interiority of her dissolution, Gogo sees herself as the cat, oscillating between the poles of addictive comforts and the self-narrating fantasies she uses to self-soothe.
The log she paces on finds physical manifestation in the collection through multiplicitous lines of stitching and repeating patterns, mirroring the plodding action of sewing for hours on end. Bringing the details to the fore, each stitch represents a numbing indulgence, pillars that hold up her world but grow stale in their stasis, taut perfection.
Although comforts are created and even found, we become tethered to them, and they eventually transform into standards. As the seasons change and the batteries in her controller die, Gogo feels a sense of guilt as she reaches for replacement in the same places, wearing the log down, settling into something recurrent, following her footsteps. Unable to decide if there’s a solution to a surreal problem, Gogo presents something she thinks is beautiful and asks if you can see the outlines of its impending destruction.
