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Naeem Mohaiemen: THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY
5 June–11 October 2026
Hunterian Art Gallery

The Hunterian is delighted to present Naeem Mohaiemen’s new three-channel film THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY (2025), coinciding with the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Scotland’s biennial contemporary art festival.

THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY revisits the turbulent 1970s, a decade of hopeful rebellions and catastrophic disappointments. For his new film, Mohaiemen focuses on a flashpoint in time: May 1970, when American students protesting domestic racism and overseas wars were met by state violence.

In the decades since, a memorial community has formed around the “four dead in Ohio.” Yet while the deaths of students Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder at Kent State, Ohio, are remembered, not many recall Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two students killed by police officers ten days later, at Jackson State College, Mississippi, a Historically Black College. By choreographing the relationship between archival footage and contemporary ceremonies memorialising the dead, THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY, explores the role of memorials as a focal point for individual and collective grief.

The exhibition also includes images from the University of Glasgow’s special collection that reflect the time period including books, pamphlets and posters and Richard Price’s Kent State.

A student exhibition also coincides with THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY and has been developed by University of Glasgow students as part of the Exhibition Development course.

What is Worth Remembering? opens from 19 June until 10 October also at the Hunterian Art Gallery. The exhibition explores ideas of how the University chooses to commemorate and remember itself in light of the 575th anniversary. It asks: What aspects of its past are highlighted, and what aspects are forgotten?

The exhibition subverts how the university typically chooses to memorialise itself by de-centring and questioning traditional narratives by telling the university's rich, complex, and contentious story from different societal vantage points.

Mohaiemen deftly presents intersecting strands, weaving together the voices of key political players, student leaders, and the fabled ‘man on the street’ alongside Vietnam veterans, to propose new interpretations of the events of May 1970 and their lasting impact. Naeem Mohaiemen says:

“My obsessions begin with a quixotic personal connection, then zooming out to macro political themes. I first encountered the events of Kent State as a newly arrived International student in Ohio and have been thinking about it, sporadically, ever since.

The events of 1970, including the Vietnam War, Nixon’s presidency, and the murder of students at Kent and Jackson State, are never settled history. The last six decades remind us that history may not repeat, but it rhymes. The binary of resistance and repression reappears, with different conflicts, altered forms, and newer actors. I consider this uncanny eternal return an ‘accidental Trojan horse,’ where protest and uprisings are also capitalized by conservative state forces to strengthen authoritarianism.

In Corinthians 13:12, ‘through a glass, darkly’ meant the impossibility of viewing the full scope of divine plans. In a more earthly, secular context, I consider the memorialization of the Vietnam War era, and how the farther away we get in years, the more hazy the many meanings of events in the mirror of memory become.”

Dominic Paterson, Curator of Contemporary Art at The Hunterian says:

“THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY is a powerful and urgent work. As a university museum, The Hunterian is particularly pleased to be able to share Naeem Mohaiemen's artistic exploration of the ways campus protest has been remembered and commemorated. Though the film is explicitly concerned with events in the United States during the Vietnam War, it is also haunted by our own present, and by other scenes of state violence and repression closer to home.

In thinking about whose stories become widely known or exemplary of the past, THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY continues the artist's long-standing interest in visualising global majority histories and counter-narratives. Drawing on archival footage and weaving it into his own footage, Naeem’s work brings to mind Walter Benjamin’s observation that 'To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it ‘the way it really was’ ... It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger’. We hope that audiences during Glasgow International and after will find their own connections between the past and the dangerous present in THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY.”

As part of its presentation of THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY, The Hunterian will create a space for dialogue on the role of art in activism. The programme will explore how creative practice can amplify protest, shape collective memory and inspire social change. Through a series of workshops, University of Glasgow students will be invited to share their perspectives on how art can disrupt power, honour histories of struggle, and spark new possibilities for collective action.

Following the inaugural London presentation of the work by Artangel at Albany House (September–December 2025), the UK tour has been convened by Film and Video Umbrella and will travel to Bonington Gallery, Nottingham (2026), The Hunterian, University of Glasgow (2026), and John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (2026). The work will also be shown at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, in Spring 2026.

THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY by Naeem Mohaiemen.

Commissioned and produced by Artangel.

Commissioned in partnership with Film and Video Umbrella and Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.

Supported by Experimenter.

The UK tour has been convened by Film and Video Umbrella. Exhibition Partners are The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton and Bonington Gallery, Nottingham.

Artangel, FVU and John Hansard Gallery are generously supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

Artangel is generously supported by the private patronage of The Artangel International Circle, Special Angels, The Guardian Angels and The Company of Angels.

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Press contacts:

Nicola Jeffs
nj@nicolajeffs.com
07794 694 754

Miriam Morris
mm@nicolajeffs.com
07763 520 003

Notes to Editors

The Hunterian Contemporary Art Programme  

The oldest public museum in Scotland, with collections spanning arts, sciences and humanities, The Hunterian is one of the leading university museums around the world. Since it opened at the University of Glasgow in 1807, The Hunterian has been an invaluable academic and community resource. In the twenty-first century it is committed to becoming a more meaningful place for more diverse audiences.  

The Hunterian’s contemporary art programme responds to and interacts with The Hunterian collections, spaces and histories to make new connections and to reflect people, ideas and stories. The Hunterian collection’s historic foundation is a repository of knowledge that materialises the problematic history of Western society and its fundamentally colonial and capitalist underpinnings. Taking this as a point of departure and critical reflection, The Hunterian’s contemporary art programme seeks to interrogate the institution’s genealogy, and to introduce different perspectives into its spaces.  

Working with a wide range of artists on acquisitions, commissions, exhibitions and events, our contemporary art programme allows The Hunterian to find new ways of using our historic collections to understand the contemporary world.  

The Hunterian’s University context creates room for intellectual inquiry and a process of learning and experimentation. As one of the few purpose-built art galleries in Glasgow — a city renowned for its large art community—The Hunterian offers a space in which work by emerging local artists and more established international practitioners can be exhibited to wide and diverse audiences, enabling connection, reflection and experimentation.  

Since 2017, The Hunterian has featured solo exhibitions by artists such as Neil Clements, Ilana Halperin, Charlie Hammond; Alex Impey, Ulrike Ottinger, Elizabeth Price, Jimmy Robert, Margaret Salmon and Cathy Wilkes. Group exhibitions have included works by, among others: Alexandra Bircken; Phil Collins; Manthia Diawara; Luke Fowler; Derek Jarman; Andrew Kerr; Nalini Malani; Jade de Montserrat; Shahryar Nashat; Otobong Nkanga; Charlie Prodger; Carol Rhodes; Lis Rhodes; Margaret Salmon; Rae-Yen Song; Simon Starling; Corin Sworn; Iman Tajik.  

Hunterian has also supported projects with John Gerrard (a major outdoor video installation for COP26), Elisabeth Schilling (a week of dance performances and a symposium in 2019). They have undertaken collaborations with other arts organisations, including The Common Guild, Goethe Institute Glasgow, Glasgow International, Film and Video Umbrella, Leeds Arts University, and the Roberts Institute of Art, all of which have brought benefits through co-funding and knowledge exchange. 
 
Support for our contemporary art exhibitions, acquisitions and commissions has come from Art Fund, Contemporary Art Society, Creative Scotland, Henry Moore Institute, Imperial war Museums, among others.

Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am–5pm.

Free Entry.

About Artangel

Artangel produces and presents extraordinary art in unexpected places across London, the UK, and beyond. For over thirty years, Artangel has generated some of the most widely discussed art of recent times, including prominent large-scale projects with artists who have become household names in the UK, including Jeremy Deller, Roger Hiorns, Michael Landy, Steve McQueen and Rachel Whiteread.

Recent Artangel projects include Noémie Goudal’s The Story of Fixity, Hetain Patel’s Come As You Really Are, Sarah Sze's The Waiting Room, Marcus Coates’ The Directors, Afterness on Orford Ness, Suffolk, Evan Roth’s Red Lines, Jonathan Glazer’s short film STRASBOURG 1518, made for the BBC, Elizabeth Price’s SLOW DANS, Oscar Murillo’s Frequencies and Steve McQueen’s Year 3, in collaboration with Tate Britain and A New Direction. For more information on Artangel, please visit artangel.org.uk | @artangel_ldn

About Film and Video Umbrella

Film and Video Umbrella commissions, produces and curates artists’ moving-image works, and presents them in collaboration with galleries and cultural partners throughout the UK and internationally. We enable artists to make challenging and ambitious projects, promoting innovation through our support of new and significant voices working across the visual arts. FVU has supported more than 200 different artists’ projects, from multi- screen installations to online commissions. To find out more visit www.fvu.co.uk

About The Wexner Center for the Arts

The Wexner Center for the Arts is a multidisciplinary resource for contemporary culture based on The Ohio State University’s main campus. Since its founding in 1989, it has evolved into a cultural force with both city-wide impact and global recognition.

Through exhibitions, film screenings, performances, learning programs, talks, moving image residencies and the preservation of our collections, the Wex sparks ideas and cultivates critical dialogue. While its iconic Peter Eisenman and Richard Trott designed building is its home, the Wex’s influence extends across and beyond the city, acting as a platform for artistic exploration and community connection.

Glasgow International

For press information and images, contact: Mary Doherty | mary@sam-talbot.com | +44 7716 701 499

Glasgow International, 11th Edition, 5–21 June 2026

Press preview, 3–4 June 2026
Industry preview, 4 June 2026

Glasgow International is Scotland’s world-renowned biennial festival of contemporary art, presenting the best of local and international art for wide-ranging audiences. The festival showcases Glasgow as a unique major centre for the production and display of contemporary visual art. Taking place in various venues and locations across the city, including Glasgow’s major art spaces and cultural institutions, the festival is comprised of an ambitious programme which includes exhibitions, events, talks, performances, and projects by international and Glasgow-based artists. www.glasgowinternational.org

First published: 1 June 2026