Randa Mirza

Randa Mirza’s photographs from the series Parallel Universes (2006-08) look at how we respond to media images of reportage from war zones, while acknowledging those elements within them which remain omitted, off-screen. Mirza questions how we continue to live in a world where daily disasters are endlessly broadcast, asking what responsibility does the availability of such knowledge bring upon us, the viewer. Do we simply observe the ‘pain of others’ from a detached position? Or do journalistic reports exoticise war, roping in viewers to the spectacle of war as if it was another form of televised entertainment?The work stirs these emotive issues, bringing into question the idea of a shared human existence.
 
Randa Mirza was born in Lebanon in 1978 where she is still based. Mirza works with digital photography and live video performances and has exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions since 2001. This includes at The Finnish Museum of Photography (2008) in Helsinki, Finland, Orientations (2006) at Kunstlerforum in Bonn, Germany, and the International Biennale of Photography (2008), Breschia, Italy.