Hiroki Tsukuda They Live

Hiroki Tsukuda’s second solo exhibition at Petzel Gallery, “They Live,” was named after John Carpenter’s 1988 cult movie, in which the protagonist sees the rich as hideous aliens whenever he wears his sunglasses. Like its namesake, “They Live” unveiled altered realities and consciousness to viewers.

The exhibition had three distinct yet interrelated parts: large wall-based compositions, portraits that dangled (all works 2020), which paradoxically suggested coordinating the infinite. The watermarks of a stock photo make a clean geometric background pattern in this wedge-shaped piece, while circles occupy and overlap a triangle at the center. Harking back to the Carpenter film, in which the alien elite encourage consumerism and conformity via subliminal messages in the media, aggressive commands such as “obey,” “sleep,” and “submit” are inserted throughout the composition.