E X I L E

Elisabethstr 24 1010 Wien [email protected] +43.681.81462848

KINKE KOOI <> TENANT OF CULTURE

Fittings

Mar 12 - May 30, 2020 Kinke Kooi & Tenant of Culture: Hold me. 2013/2020. Color pencil, pencil and acrylic on paper behind fabric, 46 x 68 cm The exhibition Fittings combines the works of the Dutch artists Kinke Kooi, born 1961, and Hendrickje Schimmel, born 1990, who operates under the synonyme ‘Tenant of Culture’. Fittings is part of an ongoing series of exhibitions combining artists of different generations and backgrounds.

Kinke Kooi abstracts internal, organ-like physicalities into elaborate dream-like, pastel-colored drawings. Fleshy organs together with pearls, plants, fruits and cotton buds are contrasted with sharp knives, rulers and square shapes. The inherent symbolism can be interpreted through gender definition as entangled in an organic, fleshy web of almost paradisian but subversive non-binary utopia. The works reference historical anatomic drawing as well as religious iconography but result in an intestinal physiological and psychological landscape of an organ‘s inner bowel movement. Kinke Kooi‘s work abstracts and subverts the internalised sphere of body and gender identity. Her work exposes a magic, yet vulnerable inside based equally on symbiosis and conflict.

Tenant of Culture applies millennial post-gender trajectories based on community and inclusion into three-dimensional hybrid artefacts. The artist upcycles used materials, mainly old clothing, into new sculptural works that disrupt the definition of garment as well as of sculpture. The works become hybrids, that function in the ephemeral in-between of fashionable fluctuation and sculptural monumentality. Her practice is further expanded through community workshops encouraging participants to re/upcycle rather than to simply consume clothing. Tenant of Culture creates new shields, partially protecting partially disguising the internal identity of the inside.

The upcoming dialogue exhibition Kinke Kooi <> Tenant of Culture is in many ways a very special project. While Kinke Kooi‘s work exposes and reveals the insides, Tenant of Culture creates a protective outside to an undefined inside. Fleshy vulnerability and post-fashionista sculpturality result in an undefinable hybridian de-gendered dissection of inside anatomies and outside shields.

On top of the artistic dialogue the two artists are related to another on a family level as mother and daughter. Therefore it is not an exclusive curatorial vision that circumscribes the exhibition as more their personal dynamic and engagement with one another on a family as well as professional level.

With this being the first collaborative project by the artists, both will create individual pieces that communicate with one another. While each artist is able to select works by the other, there will be new productions that are specifically made for the exhibition and set a new intimate dialogue between their artistic and personal relationships.

The exhibition is kindly supported by Mondriaan Funds.

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Elisabethstr 24 1010 Vienna +43.681.81462848 www.exilegallery.org [email protected] Kinke Kooi: I will always be around, 2019. Color pencil, pencil, acrylic and buttons on paper held by elastic bands, 36 x 39 cm (Installation view on wooden walls at EXILE, Vienna) Kinke Kooi the only word I remember from my history lessons at I learned the most since the moment I acknowledged primary school is the word fibula. This was a pin used the importance of the things I love to look at and feel to keep drapings together and you see them still in sympathy: an important one is things that fit, like folkloristic dress. The whole piece of fabric is draped in spoons in a box or a setting that beautifully fits a stone. a dress: I see that as a holistic statement. I have a fear of But also my hand that slides perfectly in a glove. Mostly sharpness because the unnecessary is cut away. in our culture it is been seen from the perspective of the hand, it is one-sided. Imagine it from the perspective of the glove. I think fitting is always relational, like the bee Tenant of Culture shapes itself to the flower and the flower to the bee. Pliability and fitting imply a flexibility of form, you could say amorphous or shapeshifting. It With all the clothes in my wardrobe I have a relation, is unpredictable and therefor often considered good and bad and also abusive. And so have my mother, treacherous, like a swamp or a bog, you don’t my sister and my daughter. We talk about it a lot, we know in which places you might sink. Fashion as a share a very passionate interest, we feel the fabrics and phenomenon has similar characteristics, it is transient look at combinations. The phrase ‘don’t shrink to fit’ and contingent, and categorically changes shape every shocked me the most because it is so true. And we laugh season. The ability to change yourself to ‘fit’ is a quality about the pieces that we hope will fit in the future, that resonates with the history of women. The ability because our bodies are changeable in size. to shape shift to fit a situation is required. In Western society we regard the steady, the universal and the eternal as higher in rank than the pliable or compliant. Tenant of Culture Women and fashion alike have a different relationship A model would come in and every single item due to to changeability, pliability and fit. They therefor also appear in the collection would be fitted on her body. have a different relation to ‘autonomy’, understanding The model would walk around in the garments so the the notion of autonomous as being separate or cut designer could see how the fabrics moved around and off from influences. Fashion acknowledges its status caught the light. A glass of water would be poured as ‘influenced’ it moves in accordance with the over the garment to test its waterproof qualities. The sensibilities of the time. Here we arrive again at the the model would sit, bend, jump and crawl to make sure idea of the fit versus the cut, and the idea of the fibula, the garment fitted well in the most awkward positions. gathering the textiles together into a garment. Yet Darts would be inserted with pins, extra space where without the occasional cut there would be no fit.. What needed would be cut out with a clever bias cut, just would a world without any cuts look like? with scissors directly into the garment. At the end of the session the garments looked like mutated, post Text by Kinke Kooi and Hendrickje Schimmel on the apocalyptic zombie clothes. Stitches, cuts and pen lines occasion of the exhibition Fittings. now dominating the previously smooth surface of the item.

Efficiency is rendering this process obsolete, reproducibility being prioritised over fit. In commercial production, industrial patterns dominate in order to meet the demand of mass production. These maintain standardised sizing charts called pattern ‘blocks’ or ‘slopers’ ranging from xxs to 2xl. In this method of constructing a garment the focus lies on the ‘cut’ rather than the drape. It is about the efficiency of what is being cut away, the line is finite, alterations are no longer possible.

Kinke Kooi Looking sharp is a complex understanding: in my opinion it means cutting away the unnecessary. My mother never looked sharp in that way but for me always extremely beautiful: her wardrobe is her palette and her fits her art pieces. She always works with scarfs and drapes them. I think my sympathy for drapes and folds comes from there: drapes are pliable and fittable and I see that as a philosophy. The funny thing is that

E X I L E

Elisabethstr 24 1010 Vienna +43.681.81462848 www.exilegallery.org [email protected]

Kinke Kooi: Principle of Motion, 2015. Color pencil, pencil and acrylic on paper , 61 x 46 cm Kinke Kooi: Mother, Matter, 2015. Tempera on board, 17,5 x 35 cm & 17,5 x 29,5 cm

Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Recycled garments, cement, eyelets, laces, bucket handle. 30,5 x 42 x 42 cm

Kinke Kooi: Why do men have nipples?, 2020. Color pencil, pencil, acrylic on paper, push button, shells and threat on paper. 51 x 58 cm Tenant of Culture: Untitled, 2020. Recycled garments, accessories, laces and eyelets, ca 45 x 27 x 5 cm Tenant of Culture: Untitled, 2020. Recycled garments, accessories, laces and eyelets, ca 60 x 20 x 20 cm Tenant of Culture: Untitled, 2020. Recycled garments, accessories, laces and eyelets, ca 80x 80 x 4 cm

Kinke Kooi: I will always be around, 2018. Color pencil, pencil and acrylic on paper, 102 x 63 cm Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Recycled clog-style shoes, cement, yarn, rope and cork, 31, 5 x 24,5 x 12,5 cm

Kinke Kooi: Inclusive, Exclusive, 2013. Color pencil, pencil and acrylic on paper, 21,5 x 29,5 cm Kinke Kooi: Preventing the sharp for being sharp, 2015. Color pencil and acrylic on paper 30,5 x 23 cm Kinke Kooi: Sweet care, 2020. Color pencil, acrylic, Q-tips and thread on paper. 32,5 x 14 cm

Tenant of Culture: Untitled, 2020. Steel, fibreglass, recycled suit, laces, rope, stopper. 47 x 52 x 31 cm Kinke Kooi: Visit, 2019. Color pencil, pencil and acrylic on paper, 102 x 120 cm

Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Recycled Birkenstocks, various buttons, grout, tiles, laces and rope. 7 x 26 x 12,5 cm each Kinke Kooi: Holding all, 2016. Color pencil, pencil, acrylic and collage on paper , 76 x 56,5 cm Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Steel, recycled garments, accessories, rope, eyelets, ca 58 x 40 x 30 cm Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Recycled garments, accessories, rope, eyelets, ca 17 x 30 x 19 cm Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Recycled garments, accessories, rope, eyelets, ca 18 x 32 x 32 cm Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Recycled garments, accessories, rope, ca 19 x 25 x 27 cm Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Recycled garments, accessories, ca 16 x 20 x 25 cm Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Steel, fibreglass, recycled garments, accessories, rope, eyelets, tiles, grout and plaster, ca 11 x 38 x 35 cm Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Steel, fibreglass, recycled garments, accessories, rope, eyelets, tiles, grout and plaster, ca 14 x 36 x 32 cm Tenant of Culture: Country Styles for the Young, 2020. Steel, fibreglass, recycled garments, accessories, rope, eyelets, tiles, grout and plaster. 50 x 35 x 22 cm Kinke Kooi: In touch, 2012. Silkcreen print and paint on paper, 20,8 x 29,8 cm. Signed and labelled 73 on recto. Kinke Kooi: Art and Science, 2013. Silkcreen print,38 x 27 cm. Signed and editioned 4/20 on recto. Kinke Kooi: Be careful she’s a nester II, 2015. Silkcreen print, 20,8 x 29,8 cm. signed and edition 35/39 on recto.