Voice Array · Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

bitforms gallery presents its fourth solo exhibition with Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, featuring US premieres of two projects. Voice Array is a participatory environment that debuted at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia. It uses blinking LEDs and customized intercom systems, capturing hundreds of voices and translating each one into a series of light flashes that accumulate horizontally across the installation. When the first voice reaches the opposite end, the phrase releases as sound with synchronized light pulsation. Last Breath is a robotic installation that stores and releases the breath of Cuban singer Omara Portuondo between a set of bellows and a brown paper bag, activated 10,000 times daily. Since the 1990s, Lozano-Hemmer has combined digital media, robotics, medical science, performance art, and lived experience into interactive artworks, emphasizing relationship-specific work through connective interfaces. An opening night performance featured vocal percussionist Rahzel exploring the interface between machines, the body and music with the Voice Array installation.

Works