If art is something that you want to feel comfortable with in your home, then Haroon Mirza is probably not your man. As the winner of the 2012 Daiwa Foundation Art Prize, British-born, ethnic-Pakistani artist Mirza is being introduced to Tokyo's art connoisseurs with a show at SCAI THE BATHHOUSE.
But how much demand can there be in the land of "rabbit hutch" apartments for an artist whose work, as showcased in this show, flashes, flickers, buzzes, and hums?
Visually, the installation, titled "Falling rope," has a minimalist and brutalist aspect: a speaker hangs by a wire from the ceiling; an ultra thin video screen plays a scene of a waterfall that can only be seen when a light behind it flashes; sparse LED strips have been attached to the wall behind bent plastic sheets; speakers blare out "sub-music" ? sounds that seem to distantly strive toward music in the same way that a moth strives for the moon. The scene evoked is of a post-apocalyptic, vandalized disco, but not nearly as exciting as that sounds.