For Can I Leave You?, Triple Canopy commissioned the fashion collective CFGNY (Concept Foreign Garments New York) to create Synthetic Blend V, a capsule collection and campaign video. Prompted by the combination of European American and Chinese objects in Pendleton House at the RISD Museum in Providence, RI, CFGNY’s collection considers how Asian American identity is forged and perceived, especially through the global circulation of styles and materials. CFGNY worked with tailors in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam—Nguyệt Huế Nguyệt, Bùi Thị Mỹ Linh, Bùi Thị Lan Anh, Da Trần Văn Tân, and Namsilk Tailor—to develop designs. These garments provide an uncanny reflection of the objects that surround them. They also give the impression of the house being inhabited—or haunted—by those who don’t belong in such a “typically American” environment, and whose presence might have a transformative effect. CFGNY’s and Triple Canopy’s videos are projected in the Spalter New Media Gallery, and the garments are installed throughout Pendleton House.

An essay written by CFGNY for this commission can be found on Triple Canopy.

‍Synthetic Blend V was made possible through support from a Craft Research Fund grant from the Center for Craft, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Jacques Louis Vidal Charitable Fund, the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, and the Opaline Fund of the Jewish Community Endowment Federation and Endowment Fund.

This work was included in the exhibition Raid the Icebox Now. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its exhibition Raid the Icebox I with Andy Warhol (1970), the RISD Museum engaged with contemporary artists and designers and commissioned new bodies of work.