While AI permeates our daily lives in all manner of ways, one architectural photographer and artist has embraced and explored the technology to create. Provoking thought and exploring technique, Tom Blachford is well known for his deep dive into unchartered territory and with his latest exhibition that was on show for one viewing from Fletcher Arts, the past and the future coalesce in a disturbing reality.
With A Journey Though the Uncanny Valley: The Golden Age, Blachford presents his latest pictorial works in giant format incorporating his vision of a time past, or is it the future? It’s difficult to tell.
“It’s talking about the feeling we have of this nostalgia for the good old days, whether or not they existed, and also the fact that we can’t get back to them.” says Blachford.
Each of the six images and well as a wall of 133 small polaroid-sized images visually speak of a golden age, luxury and wealth but all is not as it seems. There is a disturbing quality to the subjects, scenes and even the colour saturation that makes the viewer think. It’s not quite real but could be, still something is amiss, whether a twisted human limb or mis-matched topography things are not as they should be.
Using AI to help imagine the image forms, Blachford curates the technology to his own vision, pushing the boundaries and creating something quite different to the ubiquitous portrait or landscape offering. He readily admits that AI is catching up with incredible speed to making a ‘perfect reality’ where its challenging to know if a photograph is real or not.
For this exhibition, Blachford used a version of AI that is four versions behind the latest algorithm, which is its own way is akin to using an 80-year-old camera to those utilised today.
Speaking about the exhibition, Blachford explains, “Part of my practice is helping people to explore, in a low stake’s environment, the fact that you can’t trust images anymore. You know that it’s like this. None of these things exist. None of these people exist. None of these places or things exist. All of these are total fabrication, but they’re at times seductive and believable. There are people that would fight me and say, no, no, that person’s real, we’re in that part of the process now, and so, I like playing and acknowledging that and trying to get people to realise that you can’t trust anything.”
Real or not, the images from A Journey Though the Uncanny Valley: The Golden Age, are mesmerising. There is a hypnotic quality about them, the subjects and curation of forms that are saturated with an unearthly golden hue seduce the viewer to engage.
Related: A dreamlike exploration of architecture at Tom Blachford exhibition
These are images that require an in-depth appraisal because it’s only once the eye adjusts to the imperfections, that the mind realises that these photographs are not real – a very unnerving conclusion.
Sarah Hook is the director of Fletcher Arts and advocates and supports some of the most exciting established and up and coming artists. Hook does not represent artists, rather she works with them offers advice and uses her contacts to guide them. More an agent that a gallery owner, her diverse range of artistic collaborators is a who’s who of dynamic creatives that along with Blachford include, Lisa Roet, Daniel Barbera, Peter D Cole, Kirby Bourke, Richard Stringer, Marnie Haddad, Gregory Bonasera, Sam Michelle and so many more.
Working with architects, interior designers, developers and private collectors, Hook through Fletcher Arts has established her platform from knowledge, experience and instinct and seems always ahead of trends.
Tom Blachford’s A Journey Though the Uncanny Valley: The Golden Age, exhibition can be viewed by appointment and is a compelling testament to photography, art and the power of AI.
Next up: The lived-in authenticity of Nathan Ruttner’s design process