Haroon Mirza Explores Spiritual Frequencies

Interdisciplinary artist Haroon Mirza is known for making the invisible visible and the insensible sensible through collaborative installations that pair mesmerizing audiovisuals with minimalist aesthetics. ‘Ceremonies and Rituals’ at Tokyo’s SCAI The Bathhouse focuses on an intriguing strain of Mirza’s practice: the investigation of spirituality as a kind of frequency or current.

The show comprises two parts. In the first space are six wall-mounted works in two sizes from the series ‘Solar Cell Circuit Composition’ (2019–ongoing). Arranged on plain grounds, solar cells in a deep metallic blue and shiny copper tape produce a clean geometric pattern that evokes the aesthetics of Islamic art. The smaller works from the sub-series ‘Ogdoad Interstellar Magnet’ (2024–ongoing) feature two squares made from copper tape that overlap to form an eight-pointed star: in a Muslim context, the rub el hizb (the Islamic star) symbol. This is laid atop solar cells in a cross shape – a form associated with Christianity. At the centre of each work, a piece of iron meteorite is held by a copper coil connected to the solar cells to generate an electromagnetic microcurrent.

Each of the bigger pieces in the sub-series ‘Illuminated’ (2019–ongoing), which function as a storyboard to the film shown in the adjoining room, holds a miniature painting at its heart. Painted by the Pakistani artist Brishna Amin Khan on Mirza’s commission, the miniatures depict different ritualistic scenes with a female figure. One woman meditates in a cave; another forages for mushrooms; the third sits beneath a tree holding a glowing sphere. Around them, the rub el hizb symbol recurs, as do groups of eight solar cells (a heavenly number); a ‘halo’ of LEDs is carefully arranged over each character’s head. Throughout the room, mixed motifs and materials evoke different religions and spiritual activities, inviting the viewer to think about the affinities among them in our contemporary moment.

The second space presents the two-channel video installation Cymatic Ceremony (2024). The display includes an array of objects: a painted solar panel cracked down the middle; floodlights which intermittently illuminate the panel; a set of tabla drums activated by the lights; a bespoke theremin equipped with a turntable; and other electronic devices that create a discrete sonic environment, all connected and orchestrated to synchronize with the film. Building on themes in Mirza’s performance installation re_creation (2024), which he conceived as an experimental opera and premiered at CBSO Centre in Birmingham in January this year, Cymatic Ceremony features a new, ten-minute video made with Icelandic-British moving-image artist Helga Dóróthea Fannon.

Working with the storyboards and elements from re_creation, Fannon threaded Khan’s fragmented scenes into a sublime audiovisual narrative as the film’s storyteller. At the beginning of the video, Fannon plays a Tibetan singing bowl in the forest; the instrument vibrates at 111Hz, a frequency that some believe to be divine. When, on one screen, Fannon opens her mouth, on the other, the perfectly synchronized voice of the soprano Juliet Fraser prompts poppy seeds to form different geometric patterns on a Chladni Plate – a device that visualizes sonic vibrations. As a series of otherworldly scenes and sounds in the film intertwine with the live electronic environmental sound, flashing lights and the rhythm of the tablas – all programmed by Mirza to resonate with the film – the work becomes wholly immersive. Soaking up visuals and sounds begins to feel calm and meditative, even fulfilling. When we sat together in the installation, Mirza told me he believes that the way for us to best experience our humanity is to stay ‘here and now’. This multifaceted, spiritual show is an instrument that ultimately, vividly, keeps us present.

 ‘Haroon Mirza: Ceremonies and Rituals’ is on view at SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo until 12 October

^{Main image: ‘Haroon Mirza: Ceremonies and Rituals’, 2024, installation view. Courtesy: the artist and SCAI The Bathhouse}