Haroon Mirza: Circuits & Sequences

Nam June Paik Art Center is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Korea by the 2014 Nam June Paik Art Center Prize winner Haroon Mirza. The exhibition, titled Circuits & Sequences will feature new and recent works by Mirza and will run from October 29, 2015 until February 7, 2016.

The Nam June Paik Art Center Prize was set up to discover and acknowledge the work of artists who venture beyond the known horizon, experimenting with materials and techniques to create innovative works which challenge the perceptions of contemporary art, as Nam June Paik did. Mirza was selected in recognition of his practice which fuses art and technology, effortlessly crossing between the divides that could otherwise exist between these two domains. Mirza’s works weave sound, installation and video seamlessly, blending antiquated analogue materials, such as televisions, keyboards, amplifiers and furniture with state of the art digital technology. As the Chairperson of the 2014 jury, Nobuo Nakamura, Director of the CCA Kitakyushu, Japan explains, “Through his works, time and transient technology come to settle in one space.”

Based in London, Mirza has captured the world’s attention with his installations that test the interplay and friction between sound, light waves and electric current. He creates performances, site-specific installations and kinetic sculptures comprised of a variety of ready-made objects and time-based materials. His work asks us to reconsider the perceptual distinctions between noise, sound and music and make us question the categorization of cultural forms. Mirza says all music is organized sound and noise. He describes himself as a composer who manipulates the invisible and volatile existence of electromagnetic waves, using them like musical notes or instruments in his complex sculptural installations.

In his solo exhibition, Circuits & Sequences, to be held for the first time in Korea, Mirza brings to our attention the electronic circuits that generate electromagnetic waves and the programmes of sequences that turn circuits on and off. These circuits proliferate in countless repetitions out of sight just like rhizomes, delivering electronic sound layered with various lights to the audience while electronically resonating through the space through audio-visual convergence. Mirza’s LED Circuit Compositions to be installed at Nam June Paik Art Center delicately connect turntable dust covers, abandoned windows and acrylic panels with LEDs, electric wires and cables. As if an emotional being, the LED Circuit compositions emit varying light depending on the sunlight received each day—the power supplied to the composition comes from the next room where a system connected to a solar panel is installed alongside a selection of Mirza’s Solar Symphony works. The Solar Symphonies orchestrate fragmented sound along with subtle LED lights flickering through the panel’s repeated grid, evoking synaesthetic senses of the audience as they walk into this space filled with light energy, sound and electromagnetic waves. Structured and fragmented sound reverberates also in another of artist’s works, Adam, Eve, Others and a UFO. Eight speakers generate sound that is fed into a round UFO at the center of the sculpture. The flashing lights emit drumming beats through each of the speakers and culminate in a multilayered audiovisual experience.

Director: Jinsuk Suh

Curator: Soo Young Lee