Haroon Mirza presents a solo exhibition of new works, entitled |||, forming a constellation of installations around the so-called ‘Holy’ or ‘Divine’ frequency of 111 Hz, which provides a sonic bathing experience that permeates the gallery spaces. Individual works incorporate light, moving image, sound and sculpture, while a living ecosystem deriving from one of Mirza’s solar-panel works ‘powers’ an ant colony and a fungus farm. This is his fifth solo show with the gallery and follows major museum and biennial presentations in 2022, such as the Lofoten International Art Festival in Norway and lille3000 in France, with a new commission also being unveiled during the first Islamic Art Biennale in Saudi Arabia that opens on 23 January.
In the main room at Lisson Gallery, Mirza presents a new video work in collaboration with filmmaker Helga Dóróthea Fannon, continuing his ongoing ‘modular opera’ – a malleable system of interconnected video and performance works – in which a tea ceremony is conducted using the active ingredient of the amanita muscaria mushroom.
Sound acts as another connective thread, linking the entire show through the staging of an electro-acoustic ‘gong bath,’ for which Mirza has approximated the sonic frequency of 111 Hz using synthesizers and traditional instruments such as a Tibetan singing bowl and a bespoke harmonium from India known as a Shruti box.
Upstairs, Mirza continues his series of Solar Cell Circuit Compositions that act as scripts to the film below, as well as another new work incorporating three glass chambers containing an ant colony and a fungal bed of organic matter for the leaf cutters to harvest themselves, while an array of halogen lamps provide heat and light to ensure the ecosystem’s survival and illuminate solar panels that activate sounds created by the ants’ movements.
| Duration | 24 February 2023 - 08 April 2023 |
| Times | Tuesday – Saturday: 11:00am – 6:00pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Lisson Gallery (67 Lisson Street) |
| Address | 67 Lisson Street, London, NW1 5DA |
| Contact | 4402077242739 / contact@lissongallery.com / www.lissongallery.com |