Soup presents the gallery’s fourteenth exhibition, Tulani Hlalo’s solo exhibition ‘Silly Bitch’⁣, curated by Georgia Stephenson. 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. Stephenson previously included Hlalo’s work in the group exhibitions ‘Baggage Claim’ (Staffordshire St, 2023) and ‘Unbound Surplus Aggregate’ (Enclave Projects, 2019).

Comprising textile, moving image, performance, sculpture and installation, Hlalo’s recent bodies of work borrow from 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.

‘Silly Bitch’ sees the gallery space transformed into an immersive environment recalling both a dog-show competition tent and gymnasium performance staging, with electric blue drapery lending to a particularly kitsch concept of opulence or glamour. Within, Hlalo presents four new 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. We encounter Lucky the cotton candy-colored lobster, a baby-blue and pastel-pink crustacean caught off the coast of Canada, whose unusual pigmentation is suspected to be the result of a rare genetic mutation or an atypical diet. Alongside, Tira the zebra foal born without its trademark stripes, a condition called pseudomelanism causing its dark coat flecked with white spots. Whilst Lucky’s uniqueness led to charmed life at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, Tira’s genetic mutation came with fears of a shorter life-span, its marked difference becoming an easy target for predators.

Nearby, a groom based on the iconic swan dress designed by Marjan Pejoski and worn by Björk on the red carpet at the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001. Resembling a mute swan with its neck entwining the Icelandic artist’s, the dress was widely criticized at the time. Once condemned as outrageous and declared that year’s biggest fashion faux pas, it has since been praised for its originality and was recently exhibited at both New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s Design Museum. Finally, a black-and-pink groom complete with knotted insignia and diamontes draws influence from both the winning design in Groom Expo 2017’s Abstract Creative Runway category and the vibrant, sparkled leotards that defined Hlalo’s own upbringing as a juvenescent gymnast – comparing the questions of consent that surround imposing such pageantry on child or canine competitors.

Additionally, Hlalo’s latest moving-image work sees her take on the role of a prize-winning poodle. Set against a stereotypical photography-studio backdrop, the artist dons crafted claws, a tufted tail and matching cuffs as well as a comically oversized rosette, appearing agitated, impatient or otherwise indifferent to the imagined prompt and circumstance taking place around her.