Haroon Mirza Explores Spiritual Frequencies

Featuring an expanded video installation and wall-mounted works incorporating solar cells, the artists show at SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, emphasizes presence

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BY Maki Nishida in Exhibition Reviews | 10 SEP 24

Interdisciplinary artist Haroon Mirza is known for making the invisible visible and the insensible sensible through collaborative installations that pair mesmerizing audiovisuals with minimalist aesthetics. ‘Ceremonies and Rituals’ at Tokyo’s SCAI The Bathhouse focuses on an intriguing strain of Mirza’s practice: the investigation of spirituality as a kind of frequency or current.

The show comprises two parts. In the first space are six wall-mounted works in two sizes from the series ‘Solar Cell Circuit Composition’ (2019–ongoing). Arranged on plain grounds, solar cells in a deep metallic blue and shiny copper tape produce a clean geometric pattern that evokes the aesthetics of Islamic art. The smaller works from the sub-series ‘Ogdoad Interstellar Magnet’ (2024–ongoing) feature two squares made from copper tape that overlap to form an eight-pointed star: in a Muslim context, the rub el hizb (the Islamic star) symbol. This is laid atop solar cells in a cross shape – a form associated with Christianity. At the centre of each work, a piece of iron meteorite is held by a copper coil connected to the solar cells to generate an electromagnetic microcurrent.

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Haroon Mirza, Illuminated Amanita Harvest (Solar Cell Circuit Composition 22), 2023, solar cells, polyurethane resin, copper tape, electrical wire, magnet wire, LED tape, miniature painting by Brishna Amin Khan, cables on glass, anodized aluminium, 147 × 147 × 8 cm. Courtesy: the artist and SCAI The Bathhouse

Each of the bigger pieces in the sub-series ‘Illuminated’ (2019–ongoing), which function as a storyboard to the film shown in the adjoining room, holds a miniature painting at its heart. Painted by the Pakistani artist Brishna Amin Khan on Mirzas commission, the miniatures depict different ritualistic scenes with a female figure. One woman meditates in a cave; another forages for mushrooms; the third sits beneath a tree holding a glowing sphere. Around them, the rub el hizb symbol recurs, as do groups of eight solar cells (a heavenly number); a ‘halo’ of LEDs is carefully arranged over each character’s head. Throughout the room, mixed motifs and materials evoke different religions and spiritual activities, inviting the viewer to think about the affinities among them in our contemporary moment.

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Haroon Mirza, Ogdoad Interstellar Magnet 223 (Solar Cell Circuit Composition 35), 2024, photovoltaic cells, meteorite, magnet wire, wire and polyurethane resin on glass, 62 × 62 × 3 cm. Courtesy: the artist and SCAI The Bathhouse

The second space presents the two-channel video installation Cymatic Ceremony (2024). The display includes an array of objects: a painted solar panel cracked down the middle; floodlights which intermittently illuminate the panel; a set of tabla drums activated by the lights; a bespoke theremin equipped with a turntable; and other electronic devices that create a discrete sonic environment, all connected and orchestrated to synchronize with the film. Building on themes in Mirza’s performance installation re_creation (2024), which he conceived as an experimental opera and premiered at CBSO Centre in Birmingham in January this year, Cymatic Ceremony features a new, ten-minute video made with Icelandic-British moving-image artist Helga Dóróthea Fannon.

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Haroon Mirza, Cimatic Ceremony, 2024, photovoltaic panels, aluminium profile, bespoke media device, electronics, DMX dimmer pack, wire, fixings, drums, turntable Theremin, floodlights, solenoid device and sound system, dimensions variable. Courtesy: the artist and SCAI The Bathhouse

Working with the storyboards and elements from re_creation, Fannon threaded Khan’s fragmented scenes into a sublime audiovisual narrative as the film’s storyteller. At the beginning of the video, Fannon carries poppy seeds in a Tibetan singing bowl in the forest; the instrument vibrates at 111Hz to play, a frequency that some believe to be divine. When, on one screen, Fannon opens her mouth, on the other, the perfectly synchronized voice of the soprano Juliet Fraser prompts the seeds to form different geometric patterns on a Chladni Plate – a device that visualizes sonic vibrations. As a series of otherworldly scenes and sounds in the film intertwine with the live electronic environmental sound, flashing lights and the rhythm of the tablas – all programmed by Mirza to resonate with the film – the work becomes wholly immersive. Soaking up visuals and sounds begins to feel calm and meditative, even fulfilling. When we sat together in the installation, Mirza told me he believes that the way for us to best experience our humanity is to stay ‘here and now’. This multifaceted, spiritual show is an instrument that ultimately, vividly, keeps us present.

 ‘Haroon Mirza: Ceremonies and Rituals’ is on view at SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo until 12 October

Main image: ‘Haroon Mirza: Ceremonies and Rituals’, 2024, installation view. Courtesy: the artist and SCAI The Bathhouse

Maki Nishida is a writer, curator and translator based between Japan and the UK.

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