> HAROON MIRZA: WAVES AND FORMS

 John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
19 December 2019

Haroon Mirza: Waves and Forms - This exhibition highlights the artist’s ongoing exploration of waveforms: how they are perceived, the emotional and physical responses they create and the various ways in which we relate to them.

I really enjoy popping into this contemporary art space in Southampton, there's always something new to explore. The long awaited move in May 2018, from the Gallery’s historic home at the University of Southampton’s Highfield Campus to the new purpose-built Studio 144 in Southampton’s Cultural Quarter, triples the space available for public programming, community-focused projects and active learning opportunities. The arts venue comprises around 75,000 square feet of stunning gallery, performing arts and film/media studio space across two iconic buildings, as part of a mixed-use development. This city-centre Gallery has dramatically increased the opportunities for the public to experience and be inspired by great art, as well as for creative collaboration with its new cultural neighbours in Studio 144 – City Eye and Nuffield Southampton Theatres.

Beautifully staged across two floors, Haroon Mirza’s artworks are united by an enduring preoccupation and engagement with diverse disciplines including physics, shamanism, artificial intelligence and astrology. He has won international acclaim for installations that test the interplay and friction between sound waves, light waves and electric current. As an advocate of interference, Mirza creates situations that purposefully cross wires. He devises sculptures, performances and immersive installations that skilfully blend ancient and contemporary technologies, offering up composite installations that mix an electric range of materials.

Haroon Mirza - Solar Symphony Solar Credit Thierry Bal

Haroon Mirza - Dreamachine 2.0 Credit Thierry Bal

Haroon Mirza - Pavilion for Optimisation Credit Thierry Bal

The John Hansard Gallery

Mirza describes himself as a composer, working with physical phenomena and found and created instruments, to create complex works that embrace both the everyday and the sublime. Through his work, processes are left exposed and sounds occupy space in an unruly way, testing codes of conduct and charging the atmosphere. Fantastic stuff!

10 out of 10