Trevor Paglen: Bloom

Trevor Paglen’s complex and pioneering work examines the systems and technologies that shape society. Computing systems that collect, interpret, and operationalize data that defines and tracks identity, movement, and habits, fuel the artist’s broad practice.

Employing a variety of disciplines throughout his oeuvre, from investigative journalism to scientific research, the exhibition will feature new sculptures, photographs, drawings, and digital components that relate to corporate and state use of machine learning algorithms to monitor, extract value, and influence people’s lives. Together, the works in the exhibition recall the “Vanitas” tradition in art, in which symbolic objects such as skulls, flowers, and books remind us of mortality, the fragility of life, and the vanity of worldly pleasures. In contrast to the vanitas paintings of the 15th and 16th century, Paglen plays with these symbolic tropes, bringing them into the present day and addressing new measures of mortality in the digital era such as Zoom, AI, policing, and even such threats as COVID-19.

The exhibition is held both at 6 Burlington Gardens and on the gallery’s digital platform, Bloom.