Secret satellites, cloud formations as analyzed by AI, and known but unidentified objects orbiting in space have been subject matter in artist and geographer Trevor Paglen’s always-illuminating photographic practice. The images on view in Paglen’s current small exhibition at Pace Gallery emerged from hours in the field but are less geared toward educating the public about classified government activity than foregrounding the believability of images he’s taken over the past 20+ years that include ‘novel aerial phenomena.’ Here, a gorgeous sky near a weapons testing facility in Utah plays host to a strange orb that, we are told, Paglen may or may not know the origin of. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 15th).
