Year: 2022
Medium: Multimedia Installation
Dimensions Variable
Location: Chinatown Soup, 16B Orchard St, New York, NY 10002

In this immersive installation, a storefront gallery was transformed into a hand‑crafted simulacrum of the Sweetgreen brand, from the “sg” signage and online‑order pickup shelves to communal benches and tables. Every sculptural element—from branding decals to furnishings—was fabricated by the artist’s labor.

Inside, embedded screens within the seating area streamed surveillance footage from actual Sweetgreen locations. At the opening, performers enacted a call-and-response rendition of the chain’s daily “Sweet Talk” huddle—“Sweet!” “Green!”—repeated for twenty minutes, dramatizing rhythmic corporate pep rituals through vocal exhaustion.

By staging a pseudo-chain restaurant that appeared operational yet served no food, the work slipped into the uncanny: passersby believed it a functional store and even proposed protests against its arrival. The artist’s forgery sought to prompt unfiltered reactions to gentrification in Chinatown and the discomforts inherent in polished, minimalist branding.

Press
WNYC/NPR, Elizabeth Shwe
Hyperallergic, Jasmine Liu
Artnet, Vittoria Benzine
The Art Newspaper, Claire Voon

sg_cheers
Performance
Duration: 20 mins
Performers: Garnet Williams, Maho Donowaki, Alexander Si, Evie Schuckman, Michelladonna, And Marshall Lashley.