Paris Photo: Orejarena & Stein
Palo Gallery is pleased to present its inaugural participation at Paris Photo, featuring a solo presentation of prints and an installation from Orejarena & Stein’s American Glitch. First shown at Palo Gallery in New York, American Glitch and then traveled to Deichtorhallen Hamburg to be shown in Tactics and Mythologies where the duo debuted Glitch Typologies, the accompanying installation for this body of work. This series explores the increasingly blurred boundaries between simulation theory, fact and fiction, and their manifestations within the physical landscape of the United States, the artists’ adopted home. In an era defined by the overwhelming circulation of information, screen dominance, conspiracy theories, and AI, the artists invite viewers to question the nature of reality and the reliability of what we see.
Drawing on concepts popularized by films such as The Matrix and The Truman Show, American Glitch examines a generation’s collective experience of navigating a world in which the digital and physical realities have become increasingly intertwined; with one often being mistaken for the other. Over several years, Orejarena & Stein approached the internet as a collective subconscious, researching social media platforms and Reddit threads dedicated to documenting supposed “glitches in real life.” Throughout Covid lockdown Orejarena & Stein built on their research, eventually taking a roadtrip through the United States photographing locations that evoke the uncanny qualities of these online images, including the unfinished streets of California City, a simulated Iraqi village at Fort Irwin, and various wood facades in deep desert land.
At the center of the presentation lies Glitch Typologies, a site specific installation of three transparent cubes featuring 16 image sequences appearing on the glass interfaces of the cubes. The cubes, commissioned by Deichtorhallen Hamburg for the duo’s debut solo show there, highlight the archive of internet-sourced anomalies that further exemplify the theory of humanity as a simulation through this digital “collective subconscious”. The artists invite viewers to reconsider the boundaries between reality and representation, exploring how technology, collective belief, and human perception continue to shape our understanding of the world.
Combining traditional large-format photography with contemporary digital techniques,Orejarena & Stein challenge photography’s longstanding association with truth and documentary evidence. American Glitch examines the slip between fact and fiction and its manifestation in simulation theory. Orejarena & Stein lead us to examine that amidst an overwhelming sea of unending information available in an instant, society is left asking what is real and what's fake. What can the world trust, and what is a ‘glitch’?
