Cemile Sahin Alpha Dog, 2023

The heart-shaped sculptures take imagery developed by Cemile Sahin in the context of her large-scale installation Alpha Dog. Based on thermal imagining used in surveillance technology, the images are printed directly onto acrylic panels employing a UV printing technique, while their outline refers to the heart-shaped like buttons found on Instagram.

The installation work, also entitled Alpha Dog, was first presented at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and examines the history of classifications based on facial markers to extrapolate into the future of mechanisms of surveillance. Sahin's work draws on her research into the history of the so-called "mug shot" (documenting alleged perpetrators) and combines it with an examination of the glorification of such imagery in contemporary social media, such as TikTok. The work includes new technology to surveil: each of the robotic dogs has another way of surveillance programmed on their board computer (something they are produced for) and each has its own TikTok account. Visitors thus are scanned by a dog which searched based on specific criteria and this information will is shared live on TikTok in 30-second videos. Each robotic dog is associated with a specific aesthetic language, making their three accounts distinct, even as they will interact online and perhaps with each other.