The Method
They Came employs an elaborate hands-on process that deliberately embraces lo-tech production values. Each image begins with the construction of a physical diorama featuring two-dimensional cutouts, props, and carefully arranged overhead projectors.
Live performance elements are introduced into the tableau – the artist positioning themselves within the constructed scene. The entire setup is then captured in a single photograph using an iPhone, with selective color effects applied digitally afterward.
This approach creates a nostalgic, campy aesthetic reminiscent of 1950s science fiction cinema, particularly the style of director Ed Wood Jr. The visible artifice and handmade quality are intentional – they're central to the work's exploration of suburban anxiety through the lens of B-movie sci-fi tropes.
The artist's studio setup showing the physical diorama, cutouts, and overhead projector arrangement used to create the series.
The Aesthetic
The work combines futuristic imagery with deliberately lo-tech production to evoke the handmade charm and technical limitations of early sci-fi films. This intentional awkwardness serves the autobiographical nature of the series – using dark humor to explore personal anxieties about nature's encroachment and apocalyptic scenarios.
The eleven images in the series tell a loose narrative about invasion and reclamation, filtered through the visual language of 1950s alien invasion films. It's suburban anxiety dressed up as B-movie camp.