Levon Kafafian, Mirror of Fate, 2025. Photo by Leo Ng.
Mirror of Fate
A final celebration of The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers with Levon Kafafian
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2025
Time: 8:00 pm–12:00 am
Tickets: $30 per person; free for CUE members (see below)
Once every twelve years, the spirit Anarad returns to her temple to reaffirm her marital vows to her self — inviting all who wish to join in an evening of ritual and revelry.
Join us in the gallery for a special program with exhibiting artist Levon Kafafian to mark the closing of The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers, curated by Lila Nazemian. The event activates Kafafian’s installation Mirror of Fate, an altar inspired by the Armenian holiday hampartsum, which invokes romantic divination, seasonal renewal, and ancestral connection. Guests are invited to witness and partake in an evening of performance, ritual, food, music, and dancing in celebration of Anarad, a feminine serpentine spirit who governs time in Kafafian’s ongoing world-building project, Azadistan.
The event presents a new performance and textile-based work by Kafafian, as well as a set by DJ, interdisciplinary artist, and music producer 8ULENTINA. Accompanying these activations are special food and beverage offerings, including small bites by Chef Sebouh Yacoubian—co-founder of Toronto-based contemporary Armenian restaurant Taline—as well as a celebratory cocktail by Kafafian featuring Vogis Gin and a selection of beers by Back Home Beer.
This is a ticketed event; members of CUE enter free. Please note that the event is not a seated event, although guests are welcome to sit during the performance. There will be dancing, and food and drinks will be served throughout the evening. See below to join us.
Get Tickets
For non-members of CUE, tickets to Mirror of Fate are $30 per person, and include small bites by Chef Sebouh Yacoubian and drinks by Vogis Gin and Back Home Beer. Capacity is limited and tickets are available on a first come, first served basis.
Become a Member
Members of CUE enter free with RSVP! See below for more info and to join CUE’s membership program, which provides additional benefits, access, and resources for artists and supporters. Both annual and subscription options are available.
About the Participants
Levon Kafafian is a weaver who works the narrative threads of costume, artifact, ritual, and installation into stories about possible worlds and potential futures. Treating woven cloth as portals into these other worlds, Kafafian generates texts infused with future ancestral practice, hybridity, and magic. Their current work channels the world of Azadistan out of the Armenian diasporic imaginary toward the forthcoming graphic novel Portal Fire.
Based in Detroit, Kafafian holds a BFA in Fiber from the College for Creative Studies and a BA in Anthropology from Wayne State University (2014). They co-led a seven-week public educational weaving program in partnership with Trapholt Museum for Moderne Kunst, Denmark (2022), and they regularly lecture and teach workshops across the U.S. Kafafian has exhibited their work at notable institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Stamps Gallery at the University of Michigan, and the Arab American National Museum. They are the recipient of numerous grants, including the Alex and Marie Manoogian Museum Grant (2021), Creative Armenia Spark Grant (2021), the Red Bull Arts Microgrant (2020), the Rauschenberg Foundation SEED Grant (2016) and the Knight Art Challenge Award (2016). They have participated in residencies at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (2023) and the Arab American National Museum (2019).
Esra Canoğulları, also known as 8ULENTINA, is a New York based interdisciplinary artist, electronic composer, and DJ. Known for his dynamic DJ sets and compositions, 8ULENTINA’s projects are characterized by his use of sound design, percussive intensity, storytelling, and theatricality. 8ULENTINA co-founded CLUB CHAI (2016–2021), a record label and curatorial platform based in Oakland, California with Lara Sarkissian, and currently facilitates SILLAGE, a collaborative platform for contemporary sonic artifacts.
Chef Sebouh Yacoubian is the culinary mastermind behind Taline, Toronto’s Michelin-recognized Armenian restaurant. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America and known for blending Armenian-Lebanese roots with refined French technique, Chef Sebouh is redefining Armenian cuisine on the global stage.
Related Exhibition
To learn more about The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers, see here.
Support
This event is supported by in-kind donations from Vogis Gin and Back Home Beer.
