Freaks Come Out at Night

CREEPY GALS LAND, Superchief Gallery, Los Angeles, February 10, 2024.

Is there any holiday Angelenos won’t use as an excuse to dress up like fabulous little freaks? Just when I thought the pressure to meticulously plan out festive couture was on hiatus, I found myself in a twisted homage to St. Valentine, dreadfully underdressed and shivering from fever in the long line outside Superchief Gallery, eagerly anticipating passage into the Creepy Gals Land opening alongside hundreds of the city’s most dedicated fashionistas. Though the real show was still to come, the parade of costumed attendees in ensembles ranging from “sexy psycho bunny rabbit” to “hot pink life-sized Furby” was a fitting preview of the aesthetic hedonism that awaited us. I felt downright modest in my rose-patterned teddy and KN95 mask, worn to protect my fellow creepy gals from the creepiest thing of all: the flu virus absolutely ravaging my upper respiratory system.

While my literal fever certainly contributed to its surreality, the Creepy Gals Land opening was a rosy-colored fever dream for even the most lucid creepy gal. Upon entering the expansive gallery space, we were greeted by massive neon signs and acrylic painted wood cutouts by artist Linda Chen, better known by her moniker Creepy Gals, featuring her signature “lovecore”-inspired illustrations. A cheeky, devil-horned bomb stuck out its tongue and winked at me, while a lush pink gun batted its lashes and pursed its plump lips, as if daring me to kiss the barrel. Stepping further into the madness, I was grateful to find a candy-striped stripper pole to lean on while staring at a wall of screens playing Creepy Gals animations, many featuring a buxom bombshell in fetish gear bouncing around for our viewing pleasure.

A couple wearing sexy barnyard animal costumes kissed in the Creepy Gals Land Tunnel of Love boat, while a red-painted, bare-chested devil snapped a pic. A gaggle of girls in patent leather crowded into the reflection of a frilly, spiky mirror for a selfie, while a giant inflatable pink mouse stood guard. “We’re in a human zoo,” one of my companions remarked, and after catching a glimpse of a woman in impressively realistic pig prosthetics, I had to concur. 

At the center of the gallery, a heart-shaped bed-cum-stage was set up to house the evening’s performances, a short selection of drag artistry and pop music acts. Kelly Rodéo, Sassquatch, LuxKween, and Niohuru X graced the bed/stage with immaculate costumes, camp galore, and plenty of crowd work before TikTok sensation Chrissy Chlapecka belted out her self-loving single, “I’m So Hot.” You might remember Chlapecka as a central figure in the last few years of bimbo discourse, and her presence illuminated the philosophical underpinnings of the hyperfemme bacchanal that surrounded me. The Creepy Gals brand is a fantasia of pleasure and pain that both satirizes and embraces femininity at its most extreme. Whether or not you believe that radical bimboism is a compelling form of feminist praxis, Creepy Gals Land was enough to convince me that it can inspire one hell of an art opening—one worth strapping on your best gimp suit and downing a cocktail of cold medicine to enjoy.

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Photo by contributor.

LARB Short Take live event reviews are published in partnership with the nonprofit Online Journalism Project and the Independent Review Crew.