17 April @ 19:00 – 19 April @ 20:00

Social’s SET Stage Gallery presents Softer Harder, a performance night and exhibition examining female sexuality and desire.
The exhibition considers how women are reclaiming their bodies and sexualities in a digital-first world. Inspired by millennial and Gen Z adolescence shaped by nights on Omegle, reading erotica on Wattpad, and reposting lewd gifs on Tumblr, it offers an intimate and often humorous exploration of digital culture and sex.
Event details
Public opening night and performance: Friday 17 April, 6-10pm
Exhibition run: Friday 17 April – Sunday 19 April, 2-8pm
Location: SET Stage Gallery, 55a Nigel Road, Peckham, SE15 4NP
Tickets:
- Early Bird – £6.13
- General – £8.30
Exhibiting visual artists
Aarony Bailey
Aarony Bailey is a filmmaker and photographer based in South London. Through an honest and intimate lens, Bailey uses the camera to capture semi-autobiographical narratives surrounding femininity and sexuality, looking at the complexities of womanhood and the female body. Her honest and nostalgic explorations of intimacy, both platonic and romantic, invite the viewer to indulge in their own voyeurism, unpacking the nuances of shame and desire.
She materialises her work through the use of analogue film, specifically super 8, 16mm, and 35mm, as well as using various other vintage methods of image capture and production, such as polaroid photography and risograph printing.
Lily Bunney
Lily Bunney is a London-based artist whose work explores the intersection of vulnerability and digital consumption. Bunney’s process and aesthetic is key to reading her work. Inspired by the interwoven history of the computer and the jacquard loom, her pointillist drawings play with the analogue and the digital; offering work which looks hyper-digital on the screen, and tactile in person.
Her practice investigates how we construct and witness our own stories in an age of overwhelming narrative abundance, particularly examining the ways we use social media and popular culture.
Charlie Henzi
Born in 2001, Seattle, USA, Charlie Henzi grew up in the UK just outside of London. In 2023, she graduated from Central Saint Martins, UAL. She recently received her Masters in Contemporary Art Practise (2024) at the Royal College of Art. She is fascinated by images of women in popular culture, the gaze, the performed female, consumption and consumerism. After studying visual codes and language for years, she now creates works that draw directly from this and her personal experiences, that comment on the current zeitgeist.
Performance artists, readers, and poets
Fopé Ajanaku, Tara Baukovic, Chloe Borthwick, Daisy Norris, Sabirin Osobole, Maricel Reinhard
About SET Stage Gallery
Launched in 2023, SET Stage Gallery is a volunteer-led, non-profit contemporary art space based at SET Social. The gallery prioritises artists with limited access to exhibition opportunities and supports a programme of monthly workshops, talks, screenings, reading groups, and exhibitions. All proceeds go directly to participating artists, supporting accessibility and sustainability within the space.
Curator: Ayiesha Sankoh (@thereturnofshe)
Contact
For questions, please email setstagegallery@gmail.com