Last year British multimedia artist Alexander James spent time living and filming on the road in the Arizona and New Mexico deserts. The raw footage he collected during his travels went on to form the foundation of this multilayered project investigating memory and personal experience through the aesthetic lens of thermal imagery.  

“I often had lucid dreams that I believe were directly manipulated by the atmosphere of the desert,” says James, who directed reenactments of his waking hallucinations in Immortal Lands. “The way the female lead aimlessly wanders through the dunes perfectly represents how I envisioned myself sleepwalking from one world to the next.” 

James often uses painting, sculpture and video to question his own experiences, with a focus on the intersection of identity, digitalization and materiality. In response to his work, model and poet Sonny Hall wrote spectral rhymes set against a soundscape of electronic beeps and static interference, produced by London-based musician Zach Nahome. 

The resulting project is a sensory feast rooted in music, lyrics, landscape and nostalgia, yet liberated from time and space. “Being in the desert is very isolating but it also exudes tranquility,” says James. “This combination allowed me to slow my thoughts to a halt, in stark contrast to my state of mind while living in London.”