Pulse Spiral

Haunch of Venison opened eight years ago in London and the NY space is celebrating its first anniversary this month. Their current exhibition, up until October 24th, is a unique one. Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican artist who now lives in Montreal. He represented Mexico in the 2007 Venice Biennale and this is his first solo show in New York. While the director of the gallery spoke to our group, we were instructed to look up at the chandelier made of 300 incandescent light-bulbs. We quickly learned that viewer interaction is not only encouraged, but is necessary in order for many of Lozano-Hemmer’s pieces to function successfully. Entitled, Pulse Spiral, this work requires an individual to hold sensors which detect his/her heartbeat. The central bulb then flashes the heartbeat and as new recordings are added, the older ones move up the chandelier. As I was watching this, I suddenly realized I had seen a public piece that did a very similar thing by this artist last year in Madison Square Park (see my previous entry on Pulse Park). His other works also detect human presence which often control functions such as light or video in the works. His degree in engineering allows him to play with science, digital media, and video in unexpected ways. It is a fun show to check out.