Khiyo at John Hansard Gallery

Join us at John Hansard Gallery to enjoy an evening of music with Khiyo, in response to artist Naeem Mohaiemen’s current exhibition, THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY.

Pioneering band Khiyo synthesises rock, folk and classical influences with Bengali heritage music, to create a groundbreaking contemporary London sound. The ‘Khiyo’ (ক্ষ), a Bengali alphabet letter combining two sounds, reflects the band’s intentionally hybrid nature, as creatures of two cultures, two music teachings, two languages.

THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY, Mohaiemen’s new three-channel film, is produced by Artangel, and commissioned in partnership with Film and Video Umbrella and Wexner Center for the Arts. The film examines the turbulent 1970s, focusing on American students in Ohio and Mississippi protesting overseas wars and domestic racism, who were met by lethal state violence over ten days in May 1970. In parallel, John Hansard presents earlier work by Mohaiemen that explore lost left histories of Bangladesh. This includes Afsan’s Long Day (2014), a film about unreliable allies in Germany and Bangladesh, from the perspective of historian Afsan Chowdhury, and Live True Life or Die Trying (2009), about a fateful Dhaka day when left and religious rallies faced a doubting camera.

The exhibition is completed by two new works premiering at John Hansard, in collaboration with other artists. After Robert Rauschenberg – Southampton is a collaboration between Mohaiemen and Joy Yi Lu Fruend, while Ho Chi Minh Sarani is a second collaboration with Juli Raja.

THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY is on show at John Hansard Gallery until 9 January 2027. Read more about the exhibition here.