Tenant of Culture
"I was making work that wasn’t necessarily wearable, and it started to make sense in a sculptural context. I don’t consider myself to be fully an artist; I am still a fashion practitioner, but that definition has expanded."
Tenant of Cultuire via Elephant, 2020
Under the moniker of Tenant of Culture, Hendickje Schimmel works with fashion as a trained fashion and textile practitioner, but does so fromthe perspective of the field of contemporary art. The artist makes objects and installations employing used, leftover or deadstock garments as her main source material. Plastic handbags, technical sportswear and leather shoes are carefully extracted from the frenetic circuit of fast fashion to become amplified versions of themselves. Her sculptural works also involve materials found in home decoration or construction, such as tiles, cement and plaster. Together, they mingle, regenerate, and merge in unexpected constellations of beauty and monstrosity.
