Robert McNally & Charlie Roberts

Ancient antiquities, drooping flowers and faces sketched in thick squiggles of toothpaste. An artist obsessed with painting self-portraits. _Tired Horses_, a duo exhibition by Robert McNally and Charlie Roberts at Kristin Hjellegjerde, Berlin takes a deep dive into the artist’s psyche, exploring what it takes to sustain a creative life. The exhibition title references _All the Tired Horses_ by Bob Dylan and the German short film of the same name by Sebastian Mayr. Repeating the lyrics ‘All the tired horses in the sun / How am I supposed to get any riding done?’ the song reflects a feeling of creative frustration and exhaustion that Dylan felt at the time, while the film is a meditation on intimacy, on what we choose to reveal and to withhold. Taken together, these references frame the exhibition as a reflection not only on artistic fatigue, but on the persistence of making in spite of it – an idea which sits at the centre of McNally and Roberts’ dialogue.