Naeem Mohaiemen's THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY (2025) 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 Alison 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.

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.

The work is presented in London in autumn 2025 by Artangel and will travel to The Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio, in Spring 2026, followed by presentations in the UK at Bonington Gallery, Nottingham (2026), The Hunterian, Glasgow (2026), and John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (2026).