In 2011 Outset supported I saw a square triangle sine, an exhibition of new work by London based artist Haroon Mirza.
Using an eclectic range of objects and elements including used furniture, outdated electric appliances, electronic materials, light and the appropriated work of other artists, Mirza creates complex audio installations which investigate the moment where noise becomes music. For his new installation made for Camden Arts Centre, Mirza brought together a number of instruments traditionally associated with bands including a keyboard, drum kit and synthesisers fused with turntables, LED lighting, lamps and radios in order to create a minimal audio composition. In Mirza’s assemblages each element plays a specific part; objects affect each other and are reconfigured in different ways.
Similar to a band there is no singular focus rather the work is a constantly moving combination of elements which merge through discordant and harmonious beats and rhythms. Through an investigation of both sculptural assemblage and musical composition Mirza reveals the formation of music in the course of an autonomous live experience.
Part of his installation for Camden Arts Centre re-used an idea originated in a work by Angus Fairhurst, Underdone / Overdone Paintings (1998) where he allowed the audience to play the drums while looking at his paintings. Mirza exhibited a number of these paintings as well as a drum kit as part of his exhibition in order to honour Fairhurst’s original intention for the work.
Visitors were able to make their own rhythmic contribution of noise, sound or music to Mirza’s controlled acoustic environment. Mirza views his use of other artists work in the same way as he views the found objects and musical equipment in an installation; each containing their own social and political history so when combined together new contexts are formed.
Mirza is interested in taking art to the peripheries of music and his work is informed by the history of both art and music – specifically the avant-garde musicians Edgar Varèse and Karlheinz Stockhausen, who pushed music into the language of visual art.
ON VIEW: 7th October 2011 - 8th January 2012
