Paul Maheke and Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen to present new exhibitions at Mostyn this Spring

Two new exhibitions are planned for Mostyn this spring, taking place from 23rd March – 30th June. A press view will take place on Friday 22 March 2023.

To Be Blindly Hopeful 

Paul Maheke

In the space where the intimate and the global converge, where a personal narrative intersects with a broader socio-political landscape, the work of Paul Maheke comes to life.

At Mostyn, Maheke presents his largest solo exhibition in the UK to date, inviting us into a world where drawings, prints, videos and paintings composed into thoughtful installations, weave a narrative that transcends the confines of the written word, where it all started.

Paul Maheke, Shifted Realities, installation view © Galerie Rudolfinum, photo Ondřej Polák

To Be Blindly Hopeful emerged from the very last sentence of a journal that Maheke wrote between August 2020 and June 2021, encapsulating those turbulent months. The exhibition serves as a proposal to revisit fragments of this journal, a personal odyssey that became the genesis of a body of work, as intricate as it is expansive. The exhibition title references the artist’s mindset during a period marked by uncertainty and upheaval. It beckons us to consider the potency of hope, not as a calculated response to circumstance, but as a courageous act of faith in the face of adversity.

Central to Maheke’s practice is a delicate dance between the intimate and the global, echoing the sentiment expressed by bell hooks, who reminds us that “the space of our lack is also the space of possibility.” The exhibition unfolds as a journey through the various streams of struggle from which these artworks draw their voice. Each piece is a testament to the artist’s ability to navigate the complex interplay between the self and the collective, offering viewers an opportunity to reflect on their own roles within the broader tapestry of human experience.

As we enter Maheke’s immersive world, we are confronted with the artist’s profound engagement with the notion that hope can be a transformative force. It is not a passive waiting, but an active meeting with the possibilities that arise in the void left by uncertainty. The interplay of light and shadow in Maheke’s visual language serves as a metaphor for this constant back-and-forth, mirroring the intricate dance of hope and despair that defines the human experience.

In a world teetering on the brink of change, this exhibition invites us to confront the unknown and embrace the potentiality inherent in moments of doubt. It is a celebration of resilience, a testament to the power of art to illuminate the darkest corners of our existence and, in doing so, to foster a renewed sense of hope. Maheke suggests we navigate the intricacies of our shared humanity with an unwavering, albeit hopeful, gaze.

Daughter of Dog 

Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen

Daughter of Dog is an exhibition of newly commissioned works by Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen. Moving across film, sculpture and sound, the show is occupied with forms of aggression, love and loss. Starting from an exploration of grief, the exhibition engages with complex emotions and their non-binary nature, and in a broader sense with reality as a composition of contradictions. The works are displayed as a constellation that looks at the void and the entanglements it holds; hyper alert, capricious, blooming, fragmented and messy.

Image: Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen, Daughter of Dog (2024), film still, courtesy of the artists

The film of the same name is made following non-traditional methods of music composition and songwriting; bringing together (camera and body) movement, text and images to construct a score performed by carnivorous plants, a robot dog, atlas moths, german shepherds and dancers rehearsing the choreography of a pogo mosh pit.

Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen (UK/BE, b.1981, based in London) work across objects, installation and film. Their collaborative work explores processes of production and the tensions between the organic and artificial.

The next exhibition at Mostyn will be Noemie Goudal and Kristin Luke from 13th July – 21st September.