Internationally renowned, Mexican-Canadian artist debuts interactive sculpture in third United States solo show

Provokes tantalizing questions with light and electrons, his work may in fact be a perfect opportunity for us to not only visualize technology but also actively join in creating an artistic expression of science’s modern advances. We can even control it for once.

-Ayako Karino, International Herald Tribune newspaper

October 2008, New York, NY-bitforms gallery is pleased to announce the third U.S. solo exhibition with Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Best known for creating large-scale interactive installations in public spaces throughout Europe, Asia and America, Lozano-Hemmer’s kinetic sculpture Wavefunction, which made its debut at the 52nd Venice Biennial, will have its United States premiere. Running concurrently (October 24 – November 21) will be Pulse Park, a large public art installation in New York City’s Madison Square Park, the artist’s first outdoor work in the United States.

Employing technology such as robotics, sensors, cell phones, projections and custom-made devices as a means to address technology’s ubiquity rather than its newness, Lozano-Hemmer is able to reposition our interaction with everyday objects such as chairs, belts, overhead lighting or bottles and create viable locations of inquiry and interaction. The theme of surveillance is also recurring in Lozano-Hemmer’s work, and though it is at times perceived as playful and at other times violent, his installations always seek to engage the viewer in a critical way.

The installation within bitforms gallery will transform the gallery space into a responsive environment with a kinetic sculpture comprised of fifty Charles and Ray Eames-molded chairs that react to the presence of the viewer. Originally conceived by Lozano-Hemmer for the Mexican Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial, this work reflects his broad range of interests from the mathematics of dynamic systems, the materialization of surveillance and turbulence, and the reinterpretation of the work of modern designers.

Melding theatre and performance, Lozano-Hemmer’s work often necessitates the participation of the viewer in order to function. When a viewer approaches Wavefunction, a computerized surveillance system detects his or her presence and the closest chairs automatically begin to lift off the ground, creating the crest of a wave that then spreads over the whole room. “The effect is ghostly and slapstick (“please don’t get up”),” writes Marcia E. Vetrocq, “though it’s based in some serious technology that involves surveillance systems and a program that generates mechanical behaviors.” A system of electromechanical pistons are controlled by a computer that runs the mathematics of fluid dynamics, thus making the waves interfere with each other, creating turbulence or becoming calm, just like real water. There is a screen displayed on an adjacent wall in the gallery revealing to the viewer the surveillance system at work; when several people enter the room, their presence affects the entire group of chairs, creating chaotic patterns of interference.