Jenkin Van Zyl: Enclosure

Enclosure is a large-scale installation and film at Somerset House Studios. The film explores what happens to obsolete technologies that have outlasted the society that created them, examining the desire for self-preservation in a world defined by extreme commodification. About Enclosure is set within a decaying facility that’s attempting to hold on to its former glory. It once allowed tourists to inhabit “Cherubs”, the replicated bodies of celebrities. Unfolding over a single day, the film follows Mercy, a former starlet who had previously lent her likeness to the programme, who is determined to terminate her own Cherub, now an obsolete relic. Their ritual goes wrong, and instead of severing their connection, Mercy inadvertently frees the Cherub from her glass cage, unleashing chaos. A current through Jenkin van Zyl’s work, the protagonists and the worlds of his films “escape” beyond the screen, in the form of sculptures and objects that pervade van Zyl’s oeuvre. This installation invites visitors into the world of Enclosure, to traverse through the material remains of the facility: fairground signage, holograms, inflatable cocoons, decaying ephemera. Mirroring the film, the installation portrays a world of decay and collapse, with a chill in the air. After premiering at Somerset House Studios in September 2026 as part of it’s tenth anniversary celebrations, Enclosure will tour to HOME, Manchester 26 February - 9 May 2027. Jenkin van Zyl is an artist and filmmaker who practices across film, performance, writing and sculpture, constructing hallucinatory, theatrical worlds that explore the power and politics of fantasy. Drawing from fringe communities, he explores the vital world-building that occurs within these environments, while examining how broader societal politics infiltrate worlds designed to escape them. His previous films followed the hazing of latex gods in the desert of Looners (2019), ghouls baking cakes into buried aircrafts for Machines of Love (2021), rats competing in a dance marathon for Surrender (2023) and doppelgangers in a sorting facility in Lost Property (2025.) Jenkin van Zyl has been a resident at Somerset House Studios for three years. The work is commissioned by Somerset House Studios, Film and Video Umbrella, and HOME, Manchester, and developed in residence at Somerset House Studios. FVU and HOME are supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Read more Toggle Film / Video Installation