'Deadstock' by Tenant of Culture at The Sarabande Foundation, London

Tenant of Culture is the name of Hendrickje Schimmel’s (NL, 1990) artistic practise. Her background in womenswear largely determines her subjects of interest and choice of material. The central object in her practise is the garment; found, made, wearable or sculptural. In her work she examines the notion of the institutional archive: it’s functions and theme’s such as preservation and decay, storage, display and cultural hierarchy. The question that fuels her research is: how do we determine what should be saved, stored, preserved and protected? Using the phenomenon of fashion as an allegory for the transient, she looks at the contradictory relationship between the archive and trend; the fleeting and contingent versus the durably preserved. For her second solo show in London she displays a combination of existing and new work, created during her residency at The Sarabande Foundation. Exploring her position as an artist like that of a post-producer or rag-picker, she works primarily with found and discarded objects, examining the power structures behind the creation of waste. Processes of exclusion and inclusion and marketing strategies such as planned and psychological obsolescence, identity marketing and the commodification of anti-capalistic values. The title Deadstock refers to the retail terminology of outdated, value-less inventory that doesn't sell and remains on warehouse shelves forgotten and useless. The body of work explores the poetical potential of waste; regarding rubbish as a negotiator between the transient and the durable, it takes the position of an anti-archive. Mapping out what had to be discarded in order to create something coherent (value cannot be created without creating non- value); a functioning archive, a product, an artwork. Accidental stains created in the process of making are preserved; gloves blackened by the continuous use of charcoal in the process of making vodka, the prints of a painters dirty hands, wiped countless times on the side of his black track suit bottoms, a sports sock drenched with sweat. Traces of the creation of value (vodka, a painting, a desirable body) illustrate the centrifugal movement of expulsion integral to creation. The works presented in Deadstock all exist of rejected objects, taking on a new function. Playing with wearability, utility and mis-use the show includes jackets made of recycled handbags, boots made of discarded shoes (in collaboration with Marko Bakovic) and a commissioned work by Ketel One vodka constructed of gloves used in the process of distilling.