This may prove to be the show of the year as far as Manchester is concerned. Bit of a coup getting Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's RECORDERS, a show by a proper and current big time international Artist, something we don't always seem that fussed about in Manchester. RLH is a leading Digital Artist having shown all over the place including The Venice Biennale. The show takes up the two galleries on the top floor turning them into a kind of biometric/surveillance theme park. Serious questions about sinister topics brought to you in a kinda fun accessible package. You can have your heart beat read and used to create your own light display in the piece 'PULSE FIELD'. You can have your finger prints read and used along with the stored prints of other gallery goers to produce a changing image in the work 'PULSE INDEX' (see above)Your words will be recorded, your image will be recorded, your finger prints will be recorded and even you heartbeat will be recorded. Hey if your going to do something!
Of course it's obvious comment is the surveillance world we live in, privacy is dead even in an Art event and as RLH said in his introduction to the work, "There are few countries doing this more than the UK so get over it. I may not like it but it's a fact of life". My favourite piece is a new commission called 'PLEASE EMPTY YOUR POCKETS' because I did the wiring for it. Check out my cables, a work of Art in their own right....... RECORDERS by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer opens Saturday 18th September until 30th January at Manchester Art Gallery and is free. You can read an interview HERE.
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