"Haroon Mirza: For A Dyson Sphere" review in The Brooklyn Rail

11 February 2022

So many questions are asked of our relationship to the planet on which we exist and the priorities for the technologies we choose to deploy. Are we going to create ever-new technologies to sustain life, or conserve the limited and dwindling resources that we already have? There is no labored pedagogy in Mirza’s poetic approach; rather, the experience is playful, fun—it thoroughly involves and disorients the viewer, both sensually and intellectually. The disparate sounds, fluctuating colored light, and heterogeneous connected objects provoke sociological and philosophical thoughts—where are we in this fragile and changing environment we call the world? In previous installations, theological and political questions were asked, the looped sound and images sourced in regional conflicts. Considerations about the synthesis of sound and light waves when merged as here, light converted to energy, wattage, then sound, add another complexity to our understanding of everyday experiences. It is understandable that there is so much interest in Mirza’s work, his freshness, originality, and apparent joy in producing his installations (whilst also acknowledging that the collaboration necessary to realize them, including the skills of exhibition designers, technicians, and more recently live performers, is the work of a team of people) puts him in that position where we should look forward eagerly to his next works.

Read the full review by David Rhodes in The Brooklyn Rail here.

Haroon Mirza: For A Dyson Sphere is on view through 12 February.