Andrew O'Brien: Drift Alignment

2022
Softcover book
7 7/16" x 11 1/2"
68 pages with three double-gatefolds
Edition of 200
Designed by Studio Elana Schlenker
Published by SKYLARK EDITIONS

Commissioned essay by Katie Flynn

From the Publisher:

"Drift Alignment, Andrew O’Brien’s first book with SKYLARK Editions, asks us to consider the ways in which the sky is instrumentalized to exert control over the landscape and its inhabitants. Focusing on the complex and contested history of the US-Mexico border region, O’Brien oscillates between archival data, astrophotography, traces of immigration enforcement, and the iconic landscapes that contribute to our collective yet problematic notions of the romantic American West.

Across 68 pages and three gatefolds, Drift Alignment builds an intentionally fractured and poetic understanding of the linkages between the celestial navigation, colonial expeditions, contemporary research astronomy and GPS technology, and the thousands of migrants who have died as they trekked through the deserts of Southern Arizona over the past two decades."