Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / Mexico

Mexico born 1967, emigrated to Canada 1985

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s work in the NGV Triennial Wilson Must Go, 2017, employs a camera that uses face recognition software to produce a live portrait of the viewer from six perspectives at once. If several visitors stand in front of the work, a composite portrait of their different facial features develops in real time, creating an unsettling composite ‘selfie’.

Face recognition technology is often used by police, military and corporate entities to search for, or target, certain people. In this work Lozano-Hemmer uses the same technology to create ‘anti-portraits’ and emphasise the artificiality and arbitrariness of identification.

BIO

Lozano-Hemmer’s work has been commissioned for events such as the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City in 1999 and the United Nations World Summit of Cities in Lyon in 2003. His work has been shown internationally, including at the Venice Biennale in 2007, representing Mexico; Istanbul in 2001; and Sydney in 2006. Lozano-Hemmer’s work is held in private and public collections internationally, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Tate in London. Among other accolades, Lozano-Hemmer has been awarded two BAFTA British Academy Awards for Interactive Art in London and the Trophées des Lumieres in Lyon.