New York, NY…“Preoccupied Waveforms” is the first New York solo show by the artist Haroon Mirza. This exhibition is the fourth in a series of new projects by young international artists at Studio 231, the New Museum’s adjacent, ground-floor space at 231 Bowery. Mirza uses simple industrial materials to radically transform the perceptual experience of architectural space. Over the past ten years, Mirza has deployed a range of both analog and digital devices to create dynamic compositions of sound and light. His performances, kinetic sculptures, and immersive installations have made him one of the most celebrated young international artists working today. Mirza was the recipient of both the 2010 Northern Art Prize in the United Kingdom and the Silver Lion Award for most promising young artist at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).

“Preoccupied Waveforms” is on view from September 19, 2012–January 6, 2013, and is curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Curator, and Jenny Moore, Associate Curator.

Mirza’s work is often distinguished by its improvised use of outmoded audiovisual technologies. Turntables, speaker cabinets, monitors, and more contemporary electronic equipment are rewired and integrated into objects that recall antiquated technologies, and work together to create new visual and auditory landscapes. More recently, Mirza has expanded his work to take on entire architectural environments. Strands of LED lights, fragments of video, and amplified electricity are programmed to disrupt and destabilize the exhibition space. Mirza often incorporates references to or even works by other artists into his installations and his pieces extend beyond formal experimentation to consider the social, historical, and political conditions in which his compositions are sited. Courtesy the artist. Photo Gunnar MeierMirza has recently completed a trio of interrelated site-specific exhibitions. These installations, whose titles comprise typographical symbols to represent various wavelengths, each use an array of programmed devices activated throughout diverse architectural spaces. Similarly, his project for the New Museum will use LED lights, video, and remixed samples of music and sounds to dissolve and reconstruct the Studio 231 space.

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Haroon Mirza, Digital Switchover, 2012. Installation view: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Switzerland, 2012.
Courtesy the artist. Photo Gunnar Meier