198 | Group Exhibition: Hard Evidences

Memory is elusive, yet it shapes our understanding of the present. Myths embed themselves in collective consciousness, forming the foundations of identities and histories. Hard Evidences is a multidisciplinary exhibition where memory, myth, and history intersect to illuminate the often-hidden forces that shape our contemporary realities. Through the works of Tiffany Wellington, Tamara Al-Mashouk, and Divine Southgate-Smith, this exhibition examines the delicate yet potent power of unveiling truths, confronting erasures, and imagining futures beyond the confines of the past.

Central to the exhibition is the collaborative performance, lipsync serenades for soft occasions, where composer Tze Yeung Ho, textile artist Kholod Hawash, and performance artist Josh Spear intertwine music, embroidery, and queer love narratives. Myth and modernity collide in a dazzling performance exploring the fragility and resilience of love.

Exhibition has been curated by Nimco Kulmiye Hussein (Curator and Artistic Director)

Private view: Thursday 13 February, 6–9pm

Featured artists:

Tiffany Wellington
Born in 1996 in Kingston, Jamaica, is an artist living and working in London. Wellington’s work explores the relationship between the object and the narrative, folklore and reality, the ghost and the being. Their multimedia works consider storytelling through the interweaving of personal experience and cultural histories. Across photography, performance, sound and sculpture, the installations are approached by the artist as a collection of thoughts that become embodied through the space.

Tamara Al-Mashouk
A London-based Palestinian-Saudi artist and organiser, Tamara Al-Mashouk employs multi-channel video, performance, and architectural installation to examine the displacement of people on both intimate and global scales. Her work negotiates the relationship between home, memory, and collective histories, expanding the study of epigenetics beyond the body into place and matter. Her socially engaged practice addresses intersections of personal histories, global migratory narratives, and identity, rooted in anti-racist, de-colonial, and anti-imperialist frameworks.

Divine Southgate-Smith
Born in 1995 in Lomé, Togo, and currently based in London, Divine Southgate-Smith is a Togolese-British transdisciplinary artist. Her/Their practice spans photographic collage, sculpture, moving image, performance, writing, spoken word, and 3D animation. Her/Their work explores complex narratives within speculative spaces, questioning traditional equations between sight and understanding. She/They address themes of oppression, stereotyping, intersectionality, empowerment, and joy, often referencing and rethinking articulations of Black, queer, and female experiences.

Performance: lipsync serenades for soft occasions

Composer Tze Yeung Ho and textile artist Kholod Hawash have collaborated to create an interdisciplinary performance piece based on two original love songs created for the project, together with British performance artist and DJ Josh Spear.

As Spear takes main stage for the work as a lipsync artist, Hawash’s embroidered garment will reflect the dynamic personality of the live performer through various symbolisms tied to the theme of queer love in the meeting of influences borrowed from Arabic mythology, a reimagined continental European renaissance and contemporary Finnish fashion. This exchange of metaphors in the visual, textual and musical contexts between the three collaborating artists will be crucial in the initial phase of this interdisciplinary work.

The two new compositions by Ho have been pre-recorded for the performances in 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning. The compositions feature soprano singer Linnéa Sundfær Casserly and lutenist Tomas Laukvik Nannestad, both of whom are experts in historically informed performance practices for renaissance and baroque music. Together with Josh, Tomas will perform live on a theorbo in conjunction with the pre-recorded tracks. Tze Yeung Ho, Kholod Hawash and Josh Spear were also part of the Altersea Opera by Lap-see Lam at the Nordic Pavilion in the Venice Biennale, Foreigners Everywhere, 2024.

The performances will take place on:

Thu 27 and Fri 28 February

First performance 7pm-7.30pm (on both days)

Second performance 8pm-8.30pm (on both days)

Please sign up using the Eventbrite link here.

Performances generously supported by the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland.