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THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY

Naeem Mohaiemen

21.09.25 - Ongoing

Status: The Collection

Naeem Mohaiemen’s new three-channel film, THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY examines the turbulent 1970s, a decade of hopeful rebellions and catastrophic disappointments, via flashpoint moments when American students protesting domestic racism and overseas wars were met by state violence in May 1970.

As the Vietnam War came to its bloody end, for the American media, the memory of four American students shot dead at Kent State University was sometimes as emotionally charged as the millions of deaths in Vietnam.

In the decades that followed, 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 ten days later by police officers 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. By comparing Kent and Jackson State, the project underscores blind spots around racialised violence and class tensions, made concrete in the disparity in coverage of these two campus shootings. The inclusion of stage-managed press conferences reveals the political machinations of the Nixon administration who fuelled a backlash to antiwar protests. 

Mohaiemen deftly presents these 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.

Please note this film contains historic content featuring racialised language, images and graphic descriptions of violence, including death and acts of war. It may not be suitable for viewers under 16 years of age. Parental discretion advised.

Project presentations

Naeem Mohaiemen in conversation with Zoe Whitley

Naeem Mohaiemen in conversation with Zoe Whitley

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In the Artangel Collection

THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY is a three-channel film that examines the turbulent 1970s via flashpoint moments when American students protesting domestic racism and overseas wars were met by state violence in May 1970. Weaving together archival footage, present-day interviews and protest songs, the immersive work is an important work of art and an educational resource.

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“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 hazier the many meanings of events in the mirror of memory become.” - Naeem Mohaiemen
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Image courtesy of Tuckerman Commercial Limited

THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY was originally presented at Albany House in London, UK, the former home of the British Transport Police. The building is a stone’s throw from the Ministry of Justice and in proximity to Whitehall, Parliament Square, and the Houses of Parliament.

Naeem Mohaiemen interview

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Naeem Mohaiemen

Naeem Mohaiemen was born in London, UK, grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh and currently lives and works in New York, USA.
He works in film, photography, drawing, and writes essays. Forms of utopia-dystopia within families, borders, architecture, and uprisings beginning in South Asia that radiated transnationally after 1945 are all focuses of his work.

Several conversations around “nonalignment” as a concept container in contemporary art pivoted after the premiere of his film Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017) at Documenta 14, which was nominated for the Turner Prize (2018).

Mohaiemen’s museum projects are represented by Experimenter Gallery (India) and film screenings are represented by LUX (UK); his work is in major international collections including British Museum and Tate Modern (London), Museum of Modern Art (New York), MACBA (Barcelona), Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), Kiran Nadar Museum (Delhi), National Gallery of Singapore, Art Institute of Chicago, Samdani Art Foundation and Sharjah Art Foundation.

Mohaiemen is co-editor with Eszter Szakacs of Solidarity Must Be Defended (Budapest, 2023) and with Lorenzo Fusi of System Error: War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (Siena, 2007). He is the author of Bengal Photography’s Reality Quest (Dhaka, 2025), Baksho Rohoshyo (Umea, 2024), Midnight’s Third Child (Dhaka, 2023) and Prisoners of Shothik Itihash (Basel, 2014).  He is a faculty member at the Visual Arts Department, Columbia University.