Tenant Of Culture

Tenant of Culture, the critical art practice of Hendrickje Schimmel, explores and exposes hidden labour and production practices within the fashion industry, namely the socio-political concerns and history of single garments, the unsustainable ephemerality inherent to fashion trends, and the opaque lines of production that make the industry run. These ideas and debates – which can be extrapolated beyond the world of fashion as a broader critique of a society that champions mass production, consumerism and capitalism – are expressed through the repurposing and remediation of discarded clothes and shoes into stitched-together sculptures. The artworks’ production is influenced by set design, theatrical structures and special effects. Tenant of Culture views the production cycle in reverse, starting with the finished product and working backwards; interrogating the object as a meant of understanding its origins. ...

Founded in 2018 by Antonia Marsh, Soft Opening presents UK-based and international emerging contemporary artists, and often their first solo presentations in London. Focusing on work pushing the conventional limits of medium or material, the gallery presents a wide range of media and practices. Soft Opening built its early program with projects that responded to the gallery’s unique first location in Piccadilly Circus Underground Station. Opening a second space in East London in 2019 saw programming strategy develop as Soft Opening began participating in international art fairs and representing artists. Programming is now focused at this East London space. In 2020 the gallery began publishing artist monographs - the first was with Tenant of Culture in 2020 followed by Gina Fischli in 2021 and Sin Wai Kin in 2022. ...