Female Tendencies — Hyacinth

Emily Cardboard; Tendencies in Female Behavior
Carmen-Sibha Keiso & Emily Hanson

October 13th–30th 2023

Emily Cardboard; Tendencies in Female Behavior, 2020

https://vimeo.com/872565938/56bed482fc?share=copy

Video and sound, 7:15 min on Sony Trinitron PVM 2730, speakers, screen, plinth 56 x 46 x 142 cm

Suzie Leila Josie Cassandra Sarah Amanda Vanessa Natalie, 2023

Kmart Foldaway Chairs in Black, inkjet prints on a4, found images

Dimensions Variable

October 2020

Style Profile Of Emily Cardboard By NYC Based Trip-Hop Enthusiast Carmen-Sibha Keiso.

There’s something weirdly Parisian about this wonder woman outfit. Has Emily ever been in Paris? Hmm no. I live in north Brooklyn. I walk through the orthodox Hasidic neighborhood almost every night. Me and my friends call it Hasidic. Maybe when I get married I’ll only wear wigs too. Sometimes if I’m wearing the right thing I can look slutty Hasidic. That’s usually when random older guys will say weird things to me out their cars. I’m not interested in Europe. Maybe if I ever meet someone semi reasonable who maybe has money they can take me to Montreal or Melbourne so I could see my friends. I’m more interested in real experiences if you know what I mean. I don’t really want to be a vagabond I’m like already a nomad by living in NYC. The director Eugene Jarecki recently tried to make me his play thing or whatever and I knew I could travel with his assistance, but he had too much of a short-man-older-brother complex. And that is not my problem.

So Emily it’s fairly evident you’re well read. I’m curious, what sorts of books are you drawn to the most? As I can see from your bookcase, you’re a big reader. Honestly I only read books about sex, gender, medicine, death, animals, and psychology. Personally I love books. I buy them all the time and you know I only date guys who have heaps of books too. It’s for sure a red flag when a guy doesn’t have enough books on his shelves. That’s the first thing you should check out when you go back to some guys place. You seem to be on the go often, maybe someone who drinks a lot of beverages- what is your favorite drink at the moment? Well obviously I love drinking Kratom and going to the Ka-va bar. I get green with lemon. I like to just buy Essentia water and lemon with apple cider and I have a diet coke everyday. I’ve also always gotta have some seltzer on hand cus you gotta stay hydrated when you’re running around like a rat.

I love how Russian you look in these sunset photos, I almost feel like we are at Brighton Beach, which reminds me of something I noticed upon my anthropological research of New York, particularly when I was living and working in CT/ SOHO, was this desire that New Yorkers have for female abjection. Could you explain this concept of American Abjection to me as something isolated from being a hick or gothic? For sure. I think it’s a romanticization of longing for a dead NYC that no longer exists. People move here to develop and ED, wear skinny black jeans and a broad-brim hat and try to be a model on the cobblestones. Artists also dramatize their desire for the detritus of the city by literally becoming the persona that they pertain to via images, predominantly those online. Peter Friel sent me these stocking, its super whack. Like so many guys think I’m one of those girls, that I like pretend to

be something as an extension of my own desires. But in reality like this is all I know and I’m just trying to get from A to B most of the time. I mean I was one of those kids who wore superhero costumes growing up. Sometimes I feel like there’s a lot of dissonance between reality and fantasy here. Rich people really come here to pretend. But its definitely sort of beautiful, like this sunset.

You look a lot like that lady who sucked Vincent Gallo’s dick and regretted it, Chloe Sevigny here. Is there a reason for that? Why do so many women get pregnant in New York and why are they only seen Downtown or in Greenpoint? I was at the farmers market on a Sunday morning and I overheard some boomer say “that Chloe Sevigny from SNL” like it was their only reference point. I guess women need something to talk about here and eventually we run out of idiosyncrasies and the younger generations are creeping in so there’s this urgency to affirm the history and context of it-girls here. Otherwise New York would be socially dead. I saw Chloe at a gallery opening recently, I was asking this group of artists where the bathroom was and noticed someone just staring at me with a potent aura, and to reconcile the anxiety I was facing by asking dumb questions to acquaintances I glanced over and realized it was a pregnant Chloe just like beaming at me with this huge grin, teeth showing all her motherly energy, yet not introducing herself. I hated it because she knows that I know who she is, but she doesn’t even know who I am so like isn’t it totally her social obligation to introduce herself to me…

There’s something almost anachronistic in idolizing gold as a symbol of luxury, something we see apparent in the cross-over of cocaine-chic and Eastern European social behavior towards the domestic replication of the upper-class. How does that affect your placement in fashion or architecture? I worked in the garment district between 24th and 41st just above Chelsea for years. It was just me and this older Russian woman who was totally addicted to food. We were kind of the same, but total opposites. No one else worked there. Sometimes I thought I’d never make it out of the garment district and now I work at Beacons Closet, a consignment store and I feel the same towards that. Maybe it’s just being working class. Like I’d be trapped inside that basement taking orders from people with money to spend on producing or purchasing fabric until my hair went grey. Wow there’s something super authentic about that. It makes me think of standpoint theory, as a poor person you’ve the widest scope. I’ve always believed that the structure of trickle-up-economics only worked when it came to fashion. Do you think you are ever fetishized for being working class? Yeah like every day, artists that work for museums always invite me to events about labor organizing.

There’s this recurring theme of the street or more specifically street art, or should we call it graffiti… It’s symbiotic to urbania, but we don’t see it much Uptown, what is it that draws you towards this sort of creative vandalism? You know I always felt like graffiti was a big part of my life even though I ever really got it or did it myself. It’s always been something to look out for. No matter what city you’re in, there’s a chance you’ll see a tag of someones you recognize, it’s like an international currency, maybe even someone you’d slept with before, someone who’s name you can’t remember.

I really love this outfit, it’s like what’s been happening to Williamsburg over the last two decades, but masqueraded by emergent style, whilst also being a fiscally conservative jazz local. It’s the reality we seem to be facing these days. It really suites both the trash bags and the Trump International Hotel public sculpture. Do you ever feel international? Well actually this skirt is made locally, it’s a Gogo Graham Piece. She hand sews her garments and sells them on a personal Depop page. This one’s made from two reshaped Spanx pieces. I’m really into it. I’m glad I bought them. And my boots are from a Chinese brand called BlowFish. The name makes me think of Bloedow. He’s a beat poet. You still see real beatniks in the east village. These boots

are super low quality, that’s what I love about them. I guess like that same indication towards the kitsch architecture around Uptown which feels the same, in the end its all just like bins.

—

Carmen-Sibha Keiso is a certified cultural and lingual emancipator, focusing on the intersection of the divulging linear capabilities that inhabit humanities daily apprehensions of style and space and time and geography and expenditure and the human psyche. Carmen-Sibha spent several weeks with New York City / Brooklyn based fashion experiencer Emily Cardboard , where Carmen-Sibha was exposed to the slacker ritual of drinking kratom and vibing out to the subsonic Pete Namlock ambience (not to be confused with the legendary Phill Niblock!) While trying on esoteric clothing found at the good will dumpster bins.