Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
17 Apr 2012
RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMME
X no es la nueva Y (X is not the new Y)
17 April - 31 June 2012
In X no es la nueva Y (X is not the new Y), solo exhibition by Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, seven recent works make evident that absence and presence are not opposite concepts: in Bifurcación, sombra de obra 2 (Bifurcation, Shadow Object 2), the shadow of a branch hanging in the exhibition belongs to an entire tree.
Borders grow blurry when works created by way of algorithms come to be activated through the spectator's participation. The works have their own life, they are in constant flux and they are constructed through their interaction with the public. According to the artist, "the works are in a constant state of becoming: it's not that they 'are', but rather that they 'become'."
Presence and absence coexist in Lozano-Hemmer's work and definition when the heartbeat of someone who visited yesterday still palpitates today in the form of a light in the emblematic and poetic work Espiral de Corazonadas (Pulse Spiral). During an interval of time, people who don't know each other share the same space. Their hearts beat tirelessly together, until they are supplanted by a new presence.
The works have a memory and they temporarily save our faces, pulses, fingerprints, eyes, silhouette, or even breath in Último suspiro (Last Breath). The works watch over us and archive our vital signs, at the same time that we participants become observers: in Buscar la detección (Search Detection) we bear witness to news on the Internet that affirm that something has been detected.
There is no doubt that Lozano-Hemmer's experimental-electronic art has a point of departure in romanticism, solitude, uselessness and alterity, notions that make his pieces visually attractive with realities that occupy the same space, whether this be public or private.
X no es la nueva Y (X is not the new Y)
17 April - 31 June 2012
In X no es la nueva Y (X is not the new Y), solo exhibition by Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, seven recent works make evident that absence and presence are not opposite concepts: in Bifurcación, sombra de obra 2 (Bifurcation, Shadow Object 2), the shadow of a branch hanging in the exhibition belongs to an entire tree.
Borders grow blurry when works created by way of algorithms come to be activated through the spectator's participation. The works have their own life, they are in constant flux and they are constructed through their interaction with the public. According to the artist, "the works are in a constant state of becoming: it's not that they 'are', but rather that they 'become'."
Presence and absence coexist in Lozano-Hemmer's work and definition when the heartbeat of someone who visited yesterday still palpitates today in the form of a light in the emblematic and poetic work Espiral de Corazonadas (Pulse Spiral). During an interval of time, people who don't know each other share the same space. Their hearts beat tirelessly together, until they are supplanted by a new presence.
The works have a memory and they temporarily save our faces, pulses, fingerprints, eyes, silhouette, or even breath in Último suspiro (Last Breath). The works watch over us and archive our vital signs, at the same time that we participants become observers: in Buscar la detección (Search Detection) we bear witness to news on the Internet that affirm that something has been detected.
There is no doubt that Lozano-Hemmer's experimental-electronic art has a point of departure in romanticism, solitude, uselessness and alterity, notions that make his pieces visually attractive with realities that occupy the same space, whether this be public or private.