Go straight to the main content



murmurART

art advisory - looking for something specific or help in finding work by early career artists. contact info@murmurart.com
Review Oct 21 2008 « | »
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer The playful, smaller works of Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer - visible at his first solo show in London for......

Tom Wright

The playful, smaller works of Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer - visible at his first solo show in London for Haunch of Venison - indicate a breadth in style and talent from a famous practitioner of the ambitious and the monumental.

A stalwart of city installations and international Biennials for the past ten years, Lozano-Hemmer has continued his interest in interactive, electronic art and managed to embody modern living rather than purely inhabit it. The work here handles issues of surveillance, monitoring, urban architecture and transmission.

Upon entering, a single microphone hangs in front of an incandescent circular spotlight. The piece is a clear reference to traditional visual stimuli of performance. The viewers are invited to speak into the receiver for Microphone and are then greeted with a recording of the previous participants verbal offering. What ensues is a disjointed dialogue between ghosts of former visitors that creates a disturbing and imaginary interaction.

The idea of the open palm and its various points of reference are highlighted by a sinister greeting at the top of the first flight of stairs. In Glories of Accounting, a single hand rises at the presence of each viewer and shifts and spins to follow them around the room. Metaphorically both open and restrictive, the flat palm is an evocative image in a time of increased electronic detection. Escaping the tracking appendages leads to a large projected work that takes over the top gallery space. Reporters with Borders confronts visitors to the gallery with a wall of newscasters divided by changing characteristics - male/female, US/Mexican and light-skinned/dark-skinned. As your silhouettes move across the screen, the blank faces come alive and a growing cacophony of indistinguishable news bulletins are spewed out.

The exhibition is undoubtedly engaging and the artists themes and approaches are broad and yet unified. What emerges amidst the humour and trickery of the interactive electronics is a niggling feeling of uncertainty. Concepts of control over our environment are twisted and manipulated, human relationships altered and symbolic physical functions exploited.

Lozano-Hemmer is also currently on show at the Barbican's Curve Gallery with an installation Frequency and Volume (until 18th January 2009) and will be unveiling Under Scan on the Northern Terrace of Trafalgar Square from the 14th of November.

Arrays will be at the Haunch of Venison Gallery from 15th October to 29 November 2008. Check it out here.

    Comments

Add Comments

  • CAPTCHA Image