In recent years, we have seen more artists use science fiction to explore our relationship with media and technology. The vibrant visuals and complex personas of Sin Wai Kin (b. 1991) might come to mind. They are “interested in how science fiction often uses fantasy to point out how real things are also constructed.” There’s also the atmospheric and immersive speculative fiction presented in the work of Cao Fei (b. 1978). Another name to know is Riar Rizaldi (b. 1990). The Indonesian artist addresses the relationship between science, fiction and technology through film. Now, Rizaldi makes his UK solo exhibition debut at Gasworks, London. On display is Mirage, the first and second chapter of an ambitious, ongoing, ten-year project looking into the ways modern science and advanced technology affect those living in Southeast Asia.
Rizaldi’s newly commissioned film, Mirage – Eigenstate (2024), weaves together analogous investigations into the nature of reality. Here, western science serves as only one methodology amongst many other perspectives in a constellation of various worldviews. The artists’ film explores different interpretations of reality, from Sufi mysticism and Monorealism to theories of quantum mechanics. Through Mirage, Rizaldi examines the work of sixteenth-century Sumatran philosopher, poet and Sufi mystic Hamzah Fansuri. He wrote that God was part of every aspect of the universe, down to the smallest particle. These ideas anticipated early twentieth-century breakthroughs in particle physics, when it became known that the universe is composed of subatomic particles. Rizaldi edited the film in the style of American astronomer and planetary scientist Carl Sagan’s 1980s TV show, Cosmos, which sought to explain the origin of life and the fourth spatial dimension. In this way, Mirage – Eigenstate references scientific mass communication, where complex concepts are described in straightforward ways, often through images.
Mirage – Metanoia (Prelude) (2023), the first film in the series, is also on display. Here, Rizaldi used 1970s Hanna-Barbera style animation to stage a conversation between two cosmologists about the presence of God in atoms. Set in the distant future, a pair of astronauts stand in a watercolour space, with stars and planets glittering in the background. The figures stand out and complement one another, composed mainly of the primary colours blue, red and yellow. They each present points about particle physics and Malay-Indonesian Sufi metaphysics, both attempts to grasp the transcendental in the material, in a lively dialogue. Both Metanoia (Prelude) and Eigenstate are presented as part of a wider installation including an aperiodic tiled floor, a hand-painted mural and a new comic book that provides further context for the Mirage series.
Science fiction is a way for Rizaldi to bring together ideas about the universe from vastly different generations and geographies. His films traverse time in content and form, from sixteenth century Indonesian philosophy to the cartoonish charm of Hanna-Barbara productions in the 1970s. The cinematic medium makes new and challenging ways of seeing the world seem more digestible. Mirage is also an opportunity for audiences to notice the similarities between theories across space and time.
Gasworks, Riar Rizaldi: Mirage | Until 22 December
Words: Diana Bestwish Tetteh
Image Credits:
- Riar Rizaldi, Mirage – Eigenstate, 2024. Digital still. Photo: Riskya Duavania. Courtesy of the artist.
- Riar Rizaldi, Mirage – Eigenstate, 2024. Digital still. Photo: Riskya Duavania. Courtesy of the artist.
- Riar Rizaldi, Mirage – Eigenstate, 2024. Digital still. Photo: Riskya Duavania. Courtesy of the artist.
- Riar Rizaldi, Mirage – Eigenstate, 2024. Digital still. Photo: Riskya Duavania. Courtesy of the artist.
