We stared at the Moon from the centre of the Sun is a new exhibition for Towner curated by internationally acclaimed artist Haroon Mirza with works from the Arts Council Collection, Towner’s Collection and interventions orchestrated by the artist and his studio hrm199.

Mirza considers electricity his main medium, with which he creates atmospheric environments by intuitively linking light, sound, music, videos and elements of architecture. For We stared at the Moon from the centre of the Sun, the artist draws together modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, installation, and film and video works to explore how are our fantasies about the future and our understanding of the past determines our experience of ‘the now’. Rather than providing an answer, Mirza’s chosen works are intended to trigger reflection and individual interpretation.

The title We stared at the Moon from the centre of the Sun draws on the circular symbolism inspired by astral bodies such as the Moon and the Sun. With its powerful significance in ancient rituals, nature, cycles of physical phenomena, and endlessly recurring shapes and symbols, the circle is a continuing theme in Mirza’s own research. The exhibition is curated as a kind of spiraling, cyclical narrative, testing the friction and relationship between artworks in a choreographed visual soundscape.

Artists featured in the exhibition are: George Barber, Patrick Caulfield, Tacita Dean, Peter Fend, Anthony Hill, Ian Kiaer, Mark Leckey, Jonathan Monk, Seamus Nicolson, Lis Rhodes, Peter Sedgley, William Tucker, Andrew Williams, Richard Wilson, Rose Wylie.