The True Believer (2020)
The True Believer exhibition that took place at Laikku Culture House in Tampere in August 2020 featured paintings that depict fragments of social history. Through the process of reproducing found images into paintings, Hughes distorts meanings in many ways: certain objects are omitted; backgrounds mutate; colours are invented; features are removed from faces, erasing markers of individual identity. Her work depicts a range of subjects such as olympic competitors in strange contexts; an ice skater, without the youthful glamour, beaten yet still smiling, out of the ice rink or a masked wrestler, looking more vulnerable than heroic. Hughes’ personal selection of images doesn’t necessarily follow any defined logic of history, place or time; the selecting is intuitive and the series develops its own visual narrative. The exhibition was kindly supported by VISEK, Taike, and Embassy of Ireland, Finland.
A shelter, 150 cm x 180 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2020
The three dogs, 150 cm x 180 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2020
A girl from Achill, 100 cm x 120 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2020
Weightlifter 1963, 40 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on MDF, 2019
Reno, Las Vegas, 110 cm x 140 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2020
Followed in Moscow underground 1980, 110 cm x 140 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2020
The crowd, 40 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on MDF, 2020
The Twilight Serenaders Dance Band, 1945, 40 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on MDF, 2019
Everything is going to be ok 1963, 110 cm x 140 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2020
Blue and pink waves, 110 cm x 140 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2020
I hate monday’s, 40 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on MDF, 2020
Buried Alive at The Traveller’s Friend Hotel, 40 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on MDF, 2019
But soon it’s the past again, 40 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on MDF, 2019
I heard it from the horse’s mouth, 40 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on MDF, 2020
The hunters 1963, 40 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on MDF, 2020
Misty day, 40 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on MDF, 2020
Installation view, The True Believer, Laikku Cultural House, Tampere, Finland, 2020
