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ALEX TURNER | BLIND RIVER
Process, Featured Works, Artist Video
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On behalf of the artist, I am thrilled to share that LACMA has acquired Alex Turner's work "1 Human (Border Patrol) with A.I. Recognition, San Rafael Valley, AZ" (shown above) from his project BLIND RIVER for the museum's permanent collection. The work was featured in our 2022 exhibition "The Intimacy of Distance: Explorations of the Figure/Ground" curated by myself and artist Lawrence Gipe, and is now planned for inclusion in an exhibition related to the 2024 edition of Pacific Standard Time. Congrats Alex!
Below you can find a more in-depth look at his multi-layered process for creating the works from BLIND RIVER, combining recordings made using motion-triggered game cameras, original landscape photographs and predictive AI software to provide a nuanced yet complicated look at the Arizona borderlands.
You will also find a selection of available works from the project and a video of Turner discussing his ideas behind the project, as well as further biographic information and recommended reading. Works from BLIND RIVER will also be included in the gallery's three-artist summer exhibition opening in July.
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FOCUS: ALEX TURNER (5 min.)
In this brief video courtesy of Fisheye Magazine, artist Alex Turner discusses the complex, multi-faceted process behind the work in BLIND RIVER, as well as the difficulties and risks of making work in this space.
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Remote-sensing and recognition applications, whether deployed for research or surveillance purposes, monitor similar spaces, capture similar footage, and analyze data using similar algorithmic tools. Their deployers observe and compile narrow information sets consistent with their motives.
In many cases, human vision and recognition becomes secondary: the watcher (camera system) informs the identifier (software) autonomously. Despite these tools of enhanced vision, our capacity to see and understand is clouded by layers of detachment. Does de-humanized observation generate an impassive and simplified lens through which to view this complex and contested space?
Is there room for empathy in a system that promotes objectivity?
- ALEX TURNER
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Alex Turner, Thesis exhibition for BLIND RIVER
University of Arizona, Tucson
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ALEX TURNER
1 Human (Border Patrol) with A.I. Recognition, San Rafael Valley, AZ, 2019
Archival pigment print
20 x 49 in. Edition 3/5
$ 3,500
Inquire / Larger View
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Alex Turner. 1 Human (Border Patrol) with A.I. Recognition, San Rafael Valley, AZ, 2019
( Detail View )
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ALEX TURNER
29 Humans (Smugglers) and 12 Horses, 1-Week Interval, Patagonia Mountains, AZ, 2019
Archival pigment print
36 x 36 in. Edition of 5
$ 3,500
Inquire / Larger View
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ALEX TURNER
3 Captures of 1 Jaguar with A.I. Recognition, 3 Second Interval, Censored Location, AZ, 2019
Archival pigment prints
Three panels, 12 x 15 in. each. Edition of 5
$ 1,800
Inquire / Larger View
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ALEX TURNER
8 Captures of 2 Coyotes, 2 Hour Interval, Abandoned Endless Chain Mine, Patagonia Mountains, AZ, 2019
Archival pigment print
32 x 40 in. Edition of 5
$ 3,500
Inquire / Larger View
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ALEX TURNER
1 “Vehicle” and 1 Human (Cartel) with A.I. Recognition, Censored Location, AZ, 2020
Archival pigment print
22 x 27.5 in. Edition of 5
$ 2,000
Inquire / Larger View
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ALEX TURNER
127 White-Tailed Deer, 43 Javelinas, 29 Gray Foxes, 4 Coyotes, 3 Humans, 1-Month Interval, Patagonia Mountains, AZ, 2019
Archival pigment print
32 x 40 in. Edition of 5
$ 3,500
Inquire / Larger View
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ALEX TURNER
10 White-Tailed Deer with A.I. Recognition, 1-Week Interval, Santa Rita Mountains, AZ, 2019
Archival pigment print
27 x 33.75 in. Edition of 5
$ 2,500
Inquire / Larger View
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ALEX TURNER
Mine Shaft, Abandoned Endless Chain Mine, Patagonia Mountains, AZ, 2019
Archival pigment print
27 x 33.75 in. Edition of 5
$ 2,500
Inquire / Larger View
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Border Optics:
Surveillance Cultures on the US-Mexico Frontier
by Camilla Fojas
Border Optics elaborates on the expanded vision of the border as a consequence of the interface of militarism, technology, and media. Camilla Fojas describes how the perception of the viewing public is controlled through a booming security-industrial complex made up of entertainment media, local and federal police, prisons and detention centers, the aerospace industry, and all manner of security technology industries. The first study to examine visual codes of surveillance within an analysis of the history and culture of the border region, Border Optics is an innovative and groundbreaking examination of security cultures, race, gender, and colonialism.
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ALEX TURNER (American, b. 1984)
Alex Turner combines imaging technologies to highlight sociopolitical and environmental concerns throughout western North America. He was named to the Silver Eye Center’s inaugural 2021 Silver List and Photolucida’s 2020 Critical Mass Top 50, won First Place in LensCulture’s Black and White Photo Awards, received SPE’s Innovation in Imaging Award has been named a finalist for many other awards and scholarships. His prints are held in many collections, including LACMA and the Tucson Museum of Art. His work has been exhibited internationally and featured in publications including Lenscratch, Fisheye, Der Greif, C41, F-Stop, Tique, Fraction Magazine and Terrain. He holds an MFA from the University of Arizona and currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
Artist Website & CV
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