Weathered Together: Bianca Hlywa & Maija Fox

Kohta’s first exhibition period in 2026 is dedicated to a collaboration with St. Chads, the self-organised art space that Finnish artist Benjamin Orlow founded in central London in 2022. Orlow says: ‘There is currently a tendency to over-determine and over-explain art in ways that I find flattening. This stems from a mistrust in art’s capabilities and a fear of ambiguity and freedom of interpretation. With St. Chads I want to explore how a work of art resonates and develops without being overly contextualised and defined. I want to see how it behaves when you rely on its own unmediated agency.’ Maija Fox (UK/Finland, 1998) and Bianca Hlywa (Canada/UK, 1992) have jointly devised the presentation in the larger gallery, which draws on ongoing or existing work and updates it for the skylit space. ways that roam us (2024–26) by Fox is an expanded version of an installation first shown at Titanik in Turku. Four cubicles have been built with patinated steel profiles and sheets, each containing sculptural forms that evoke rural use-objects – a carved granite latrine, a cast aluminium stile and log basket, a forged steel wheelbarrow – and replicate details from nature i, such as eucalyptus and maple seeds (used as bolt heads) or stinging nettles. Fox’s work is supported by the Kone Foundation and Kemppi, a welding company. Mute Track (2025–26) by Hlywa is the latest of several versions of an installation featuring SCOBYs (Symbiotic Cultures of Bacterial Yeast). For almost a decade, she has been growing such bacteria and yeast microbial skins, which she then stitches to a webbing structure and attaches to a ceiling-mounted metal structure with an electric motor that makes it rotate at gradually increasing speed, until the movement stops and then restarts. Hlywa has collaborated with Rudy’s Brewing Company, a kombucha brewery in Kuldīga, Latvia. Her work is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.