Haroon Mirza, Dyson Sphere, 2022

2022

Medium

Photovoltaic panels, aluminum profile, halogen lighting, bespoke media devices, electronics, DMX dimmer pack, LED strip, wire, fixings, cacti, LED’s, water, speakers, stones, amps, tablas and Light Work

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156118

Dyson Sphere (2022) is a multi-sensory installation in which Haroon Mirza creates his own ecosystem of energy and sound, making references between technology, nature, man and the universe that relate to current socio-political issues. The artist developed the multi-layered work for lille3000's UTOPIA Festival, taking up physicist Freeman Dyson's idea - which in turn goes back to the little-known science fiction novel "Starmaker" (1937) by Olaf Stapledon - that in the future, through technological advancement, a star can be enclosed with a collection of solar panels to store its vast reserves of energy and make it usable for humans. The center of the presentation is an expansive octagonal structure enclosing inward-facing solar panels that, like a tank, encircle a free-hanging chandelier with octagonally placed halogen lamps, which light up in a specific sequence. The rays are absorbed by the respective opposing solar panels and the generated energy is subsequently transmitted to surrounding components. Fragments of light penetrate the exhibition space, hinting at the happenings inside. A hazy sound, coupled with rhythm emanating from two drums wafts through the space. These are activated by a mechanism connected to the circuit, mimicking a shamanic ritual; powered by technology. The sound emanates from integrated speakers in the stones forming a circle. These are connected to the Dyson Sphere and cyclically emit sounds in harmony with the absorbed light. The stone circle reinforces the mystical component of the installation, referencing megalithic cult sites of the Stone Age. Mirza, whose artistic practice is intensely concerned with mind-expanding rituals, has planted San Pedro and Peyote cacti, commonly used to extract psychoactive substances, in a gravel bed in one corner of the space. These are fed by the work from the Light Work series placed above them across the corner, its pulsating light powered by solar panels based on growth lamps, with the blue spectrum of light promoting vegetative and structural growth and the red light promoting the growth of flowers and fruits. Mirza forms a technological and spiritual circuit in which origin and utility blur, leaving open the question of whether the solar panels feed the light source or vice versa, and whether an advanced civilization can and should expand its energy production to the maximum achievable for a planetary system.