Border Patrol: The Awakening, The Reckoning

In Border Patrol: The Awakening, The Reckoning, Jeff Prentice explores the collapse of human-imposed boundaries through a speculative ecological uprising. Set in a near-mythic desert landscape, this series of large-scale works features giant native creatures—Gila monsters, roadrunners, tarantulas—rising up to dismantle border infrastructure and disrupt the violent mechanisms of territorial control. The scale reversal is intentional: what we often ignore or dominate in the natural world now takes center stage as enforcer, protector, and reckoner.

This body of work critiques the overreach of systems like ICE and the Border Patrol, whose actions have become increasingly performative, punitive, and dehumanizing—often targeting individuals based on perception, suspicion, and race. In contrast, these monstrous yet familiar animals assert a different kind of justice: one that operates outside of political borders and reminds us that nature itself has limits, sovereignty, and memory.

Blending the visual language of sci-fi cinema, environmental art, and satire, the series challenges viewers to reconsider the human position not as rightful ruler of land, but as guest—sometimes unwanted, often arrogant, and ultimately vulnerable to forces beyond their control.