because the site was in San Something or Other 30 minutes away.
We pulled out our IDs, we gave our reasons (travel, self-knowledge)
and waved to each other on either side of the elementary school gym
through the nice women in hazmat suits (their long nails).
We didn’t get results until 48 hours later
& by then what was the point?
I had already hugged your mother
& your dad had just cut me
a slice of bread. It was just for peace 
of mind. We had made a decision & were living
with it. We drove back & there was no urgency 
in the nest of your house. We ate snacks (goat cheese, crackers)
you made a latte & when we heard the election results finally
I wanted to dance. You said I don’t want to celebrate this 
& I said, I just want to dance, why don’t we do that more often?
& I danced around you 
like you were that statue of Hercules. 
A year later nothing has really changed, except what we 
call each other. I feel embarrassed. There was nothing to really commemorate,
You were right: I was celebrating. I just wanted
to be tricked for an hour, forget about it all, 
join the masses & their bells. 
What else was there?
We had sex (someone had died).
We went on a walk at 5 PM. 
Your old neighbors, that pole that was holding up the tree,
the wind in November, 
the house on the corner 
that’s been under construction
for forever, or for as long as you can remember.

Published January 30, 2022

Melissa Lozada-Oliva is the author of Dreaming of You (Astra House 2021). She hosts the podcast Say More with Olivia Gatwood and sings in a band called Meli and the Specs. She has been featured in BBC Mundo, Vogue, NPR, the Yale Review, Oprah Daily, Vulture, and more. 

Hugo Lami’s work peers into the digital and virtual absurdity of contemporary culture, evoking our social dependency on technological devices and social media. His paintings portray editable environments of 3D construction software, with the purpose of re-embodying virtual tools. The sculptures and installations, on the other hand, investigate the hardware of our technological evolution and by fusing concepts and objects, while displacing them in time, the works create innovative narratives of possible Utopian and Dystopian futures that could quite easily become a reality. Lami says: ‘I love technology, but I also hate it. Every new device gives me hope that maybe that’s the one that is going to change my life. It never is.’ Hugo's work unfolds into painting, sculpture, multimedia installation, performance, and most recently into Digital art through means of an Augmented Reality App that expands the paintings as virtual sculpture. Hugo Lami has a Masters in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art and a Degree in Painting from the Lisbon Fine Arts Academy. Lami has been exhibiting in galleries and institutional spaces across Europe since 2014. He was awarded the Public’s Choice Award at VIA Arts Prize, London, 2019, and made his first public sculpture in 2018 in Ermioni, Greece. In 2020 he was an Artist in Residence at the Muse at 269 in London and worked in a commission for the organisation Sustainability First. His next exhibition will be ‘No Reino da Nuvens’ in May at the Museum MU.SA in Sintra and ‘Re-connect’ in June at Bermondsey Project Space commissioned by UK Power Networks in London. The Neon Gallery are proud to say that Hugo Lami was the irrefutable winner of the 2021 Neon Gallery Art Award. Next month, Hugo will be exhibiting with the Neon Gallery at Zona Maco, one of Mexico's most prominent art fairs. Zona Maco Arte Contemporáneo will take place at Centro Banamex, Mexico City from February 9-13. You can find more of his work online through the Neon Gallery.