RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER

SANDBOX

Sandbox was a large-scale interactive installation that included two small sandboxes where the audience could see live-feed tiny projections of people at the beach adjacent to the installation. As participants reach out to touch these small ghosts, a camera detects their hands and relays them live to two of the world’s brightest projectors, hanging from a boom lift and which projected the hands over almost 8,000 square feet of beach. In this way people shared three scales: the tiny sandbox images, the real human scale and the monstrous scale of special effects.

The project used ominous infrared surveillance equipment not unlike what might be found at the US-Mexico border to track illegal immigrants, or at a shopping mall to track teenagers. These images were amplified by digital cinema projectors which created an animated topology over the beach, making tangible the asymmetric power inherent in technologies of amplification.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer works at the intersection of advanced electronic media, architecture, public space and democratic access to participation. His work frequently assumes completion only upon the active engagement of the audience – one in physical proximity to an actual artwork or via virtual participation on the internet. His work has been shown in exhibitions and monumental public installations throughout the world. In 2007, he represented Mexico at the Venice Biennale. In 2010, he created an artwork so large that it’s 20 searchlights spanned English Bay at the Vancouver Olympics. He is currently working on Solar Equation in Melbourne, Australia, using the world’s largest balloon and five high-powered projectors. Animation projected on the balloon is generated by live mathematical equations that simulate the turbulence, flares and sunspots that can be seen on the surface of the Sun. His work is in major collections throughout the world including the Museum of Modern Art, NY and the Tate, London. Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City and lives in Montreal. www.lozano-hemmer.com