EXCUSE YOU! is a collection of recent works that showcases the salient concerns of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s studio over the past twenty years. Likening the show to an assortment of breaches, stammers, or obstacles, the artist uses play as an apparatus to question some of the most pressing issues of the contemporary moment, such as surveillance, climate change, and the manner in which digital life can collide with lived experience.
EXCUSE YOU! is a collection of recent works that showcases the salient concerns of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s studio over the past twenty years. Likening the show to an assortment of breaches, stammers, or obstacles, the artist uses play as an apparatus to question some of the most pressing issues of the contemporary moment, such as surveillance, climate change, and the manner in which digital life can collide with lived experience.
With a nod to the absurd, a philosophy that challenges the stronghold of reason, Lozano-Hemmer encourages viewers to become participants in order to reflect upon, for example, how the fetishization of consumer culture contributes to water scarcity (Botella de Castigos) or how precious aspects of human lives are held safe or at hostage by the digital gatekeeper of the password (Password Breach). Exhibited works engage with machines to create active portraits of the human condition that depend on the human as the operational force, as in Remote Pulse an interactive installation of two identical pulse-sensing stations, which uses the internet to connect the heartbeats of individuals divided by geography.
Despite their apparent playfulness, the pieces maintain the artist’s long-standing sensitivity, which recognizes that they fit within an extended temporal spectrum of art history and mechanical tradition. Descending a Parametric Staircase pays homage to Duchamp’s famous painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912), which at its time was considered a scandalous interruption of the nude convention by splicing twenty different static positions. Nudes, Duchamp was reminded, reclined, not descended. Lozano-Hemmer hitches onto this spirit of provocation by challenging what material, genres, and bodies can or cannot do.
In Bilateral Time Slicer he uses a cutting-edge biometric instrument and vertical orientations to reflect upon ancient traditions of mask making, while Hormonium and Thermal Drift Density Map provide poetic translations for otherwise invisible or unremarkable signatures to render unconventional portraits. The neon EXCUSE YOU! is an indignant yet playful calling out using pop culture material, while two generative artworks, Recurrent Rayuela and Recurrent Llull respectively produce literary and philosophical loops based on the works of Julio Cortázar and Raymond Llull.
Electric Op at Buffalo AKG Art MuseumAn emerging movement called “Op” (short for “Optical”) took art and popular culture by storm. Op artists use abstract patterns to create optical illusions that are dynamic and interactive, much like the electronic images of the time.
BITFORMS GALLERY EXHIBITED A GROUP SHOW THAT EXEMPLIFIES NEW MEDIA ART A pioneer and champion of new media, digital and internet-based art, New York-based gallery bitforms presented the works of Ellie Pritts, Claudia Hart, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Manfred Mohr, Jonathan Monaghan and Refik Anadol.
http://Web3 Travel Guides: Future Horizons, Art Dubai Digital And BeyondOne of the longest-running and most well respected new media art galleries, bitforms represents established, mid-career, and emerging artists critically engaged with new technologies, offering an incisive perspective on the fields of digital, internet, and time-based art forms.
Why Lulu Island is a ‘paradise for contemporary art’In an interactive exhibition entitled Translation Island, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has transformed Lulu Island in Abu Dhabi into an interactive playground of light.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Gray AreaRafael Lozano-Hemmer is one of those rare artists who both understands complex technologies and can harness them to make works of art that are, miraculously, not only smart but spectacularly visually compelling.
‘There’s no such thing as a neutral algorithm’: the existential AI exhibition confronting SydneyWhen Y2K seemed like the world’s most pressing technological concern, the Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was using a dictionary and a set of grammatical rules to teach a computer how to write questions.
New show may make you feel like you’re being watched. That’s because you areTracking technology, facial recognition and more are all at play in Atmospheric Memory, the Mexican Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s latest exhibition, which is designed to make air into something tangible.
Visit “A Crack in the Hourglass,” Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s memorial to the countless victims of COVID-19, online through Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo During the COVID-19 pandemic, whenever someone dies, the pain of the loss itself is aggravated by the inability to collectively express our mourning in funerary rites and rituals of farewell.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer featured in Art21’s “Borderlands” episdoeLozano-Hemmer highlights the intimate, personal relations in a public space that is otherwise systematically dehumanizing. The artist explains, “The most important role that art can play is that of making complexity visible. The usage of technology is inevitable; it’s up to the artist to use those technologies to create experiences that are intimate, connected, and critical.”
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Art 21 segment highlighted in artnet, “We as Artists Need to Intervene”Known for his large-scale, interactive installations, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer uses contemporary technologies like computerized surveillance, heart-rate sensors, and robotics to create participatory experiences and platforms for public participation and connection.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer featured in the new season of Art21Lozano-Hemmer creates participatory artworks that utilize technology like robotics, heart-rate sensors, and computerized surveillance tools in order to facilitate human connection. Technologically sophisticated yet deceptively simple in their execution, Lozano-Hemmer’s spectacular, immersive works are often installed in public places as a means of transforming these sites into forums for civic engagement.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer on Seductive Participation and the Oppression of Metrics, Art in AmericaCan an artist engage with surveillance technologies without being complicit in their use for control and oppression? Audiences tend to treat interactive works as a fun spectacle, a chance to take a selfie. So how do artists clarify their position? How do they present their work as commentary, rather than mere reproduction?
Artsy names Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Border Tuner among best public art of 2019“Border Tuner, a timely and ephemeral light and sound installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, created a unique and powerful platform for interconnectivity and public participation at the U.S.–Mexico border. By melding performance, robotic technology, and social discourse, Lozano-Hemmer’s large-scale installation shared a lesser-told story by visibly highlighting positive counter-narratives about El Paso and Ciudad Juárez’s interdependent culture. A challenging public project to achieve, Lozano-Hemmer’s piece was able to brilliantly and poetically render intimate bridges between strangers standing in two different cities and countries that share so much.”—Nicholas Baume, Director and Chief Curator, Public Art Fund
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer interviewed on BBC regarding his new work, Border TunerImagine huge searchlights which can be seen over a ten mile, 15 kilometer radius talking to one another across two countries. This is exactly what electronic media artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is creating this November between Ciudad Juárez in Mexico and El Paso in Texas. Called “Border Tuner,” the project will see enormous bridges of light connecting the US-Mexico border for the first time.