Soup is delighted to participate in our third art fair, Feria Material Vol. 12, with a solo presentation of new tufted textiles and a moving-image work by Tulani Hlalo. Hlalo (b. 1994, Newcastle upon Tyne) is a British-Zimbabwean artist living and working in Glasgow. She completed her BA in Fine Art from Manchester School of Art in 2017.

Following her solo exhibition ‘Silly Bitch’ at Soup in May 2025, Hlalo once again turns to the niche subculture of competitive dog grooming as a visual language to explore how identity is at once defined and changeable. Employing playfulness and humour, as well as bizarre or otherwise unconventional imagery, her research examines a search for one’s sense of belonging and explores what it might mean to exist between cultures. The outlandish, fictional grooms present in her tufted textile and film works raise questions about consent, expectation, categorisation and the physical representation of identity, while reflecting on staged or constructed performance within societal, racial or cultural contexts.

Set against an electric blue draped backdrop, the booth recalls both a dog-show competition tent and gymnasium performance staging, employing particularly kitsch concepts of opulence or glamour. Within, Hlalo presents the latest evolution of her wall-mounted textiles – hand-tufted rugs in the form of flattened dog pelts, an artistic twist on the bear skin rug or taxidermied trophy head. Each groom addresses contemporary concerns surrounding costume or camouflage, either a fabricated, public-facing demonstration of identity or an uncontrollable, unavoidable example of othered-ness. 

Additionally, Hlalo’s moving-image work sees her take on the role of a prize-winning pup, echoing the artist’s own upbringing as a juvenescent gymnast and raising questions of consent that surround imposing such pageantry on child or canine competitors. Set against a stereotypical photography-studio backdrop, the artist dons a prosthetic snout and comically oversized rosette, appearing agitated, impatient or otherwise indifferent to the imagined prompt and circumstance taking place around her.