Haroon Mirza: The Construction of an Act

For The Construction of an Act, London-based artist Haroon Mirza has considered ACCA’s vast architecture as a reverberation chamber in which a disparate body of works will come together to form a conceptual and sonic whole. Sculptural assemblages, indicative of the artist’s early work, engage in a complex dialogue with their use of everyday materials—from showerheads and buckets, to simple LED lighting strips, outmoded electronics, found footage and musical instruments—while more recent audio and moving-image works incorporate disciplines as wide-ranging as science, technology, politics and theology to explore the complexities of human experience, as well as to question moral and political issues of our time.

As a new commission, Mirza has constructed a studio within the gallery, as a space for local and international collaborators to undertake week-long residencies, culminating in a live performance within the exhibition, as well as sonic and performative residues. This new commission illustrates the turn towards experimental, open-ended and collaborative working methods that have become a hallmark of the artist’s recent practice, blurring the boundaries of artistic authorship and transparently revealing the process of art and exhibition making.  

Mirza’s extensive and varied art practice—encompassing sculptural assemblage, immersive installation and live performance—has its origins in music; in the rhythm, syncopation and sampling techniques informed by the artist’s early experience as a DJ. Mirza likens his methodology to that of a composer, arranging the aesthetic and acoustic properties of materials and space into new audible, visual and haptic forms. His diverse artworks are linked through the medium and manipulation of electricity, and share an interest in modes of perception that go beyond the ocular-centrism inherent to the visual arts.

Born in 1977 in London, Haroon Mirza has exhibited widely across Europe, Asia, North and South America, following post-graduate studies both at Chelsea College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths College, London, and an earlier degree from Winchester School of Art. Mirza has been awarded some of the most prestigious prizes in the art world, including the Silver Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, the Zurich Art Prize in 2014, Nam June Paik Centre Award in 2014, and the Calder Prize in 2015.  

Residencies
Composer: James Rushford
Tuesday–Friday, September 17-20 inclusive, 11am–3:30pm daily

Musicians: Jessica Aszodi, Alexander Garsden, James Rushford and Freya Schack-Arnott
Tuesday–Thursday, September 24-26 inclusive, Saturday, September 28, 11am–3:30pm daily

Choreographer and dancer: Julie Cunningham and Chess Boughey
Tuesday–Saturday, October 1-5 inclusive, 11am–3:30pm daily

Writers-in-residence: Chi Tran and Arben Dzika
Monday–Friday, Ocotber 7-11 inclusive, variable hours
Writers-in-residence commissioned by Liquid Architecture for Disclaimer

Live performance: The Construction of an Act
6:30pm, Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Featuring collaborators Jessica Aszodi, Chess Boughey, Julie Cunningham, Alexander Garsden, James Rushford and Freya Schack-Arnott.

The Construction of an Act is curated by ACCA’s Senior Curator, Annika Kristensen, and presented with the Melbourne International Arts Festival