"Throughlines" is a triptych of 3D printed, wall-mounted sculptural projections. They appropriate ancient cave animation aesthetics for a new context: archiving iconic New York City sites for a time when kinetic media is ubiquitous for documenting our environments.
The series takes inspiration from archaeological studies of prehistoric cave etchings, nicknamed ‘spaghetti lines’ by researchers. To the untrained eye, these features, often cut underneath paintings of local fauna, seem intentional, but the reasoning for their placement is unclear. It is only when a light source moves through the space that the animals depicted appear to shift, emerge, and disappear.
These pieces were hidden deep within caves far away from the outside world, a sacred, distant reflection of reality. In the cave paintings, according to archaeologist Edward Wachtel, ‘…time and space … appear inextricably connected… with their past, present and future more compressed into a never-ceasing now…’
‘Throughlines’ builds upon this spirit with modern iconography, a series of overlapping films complementing physical textures adapted from topographies of NYC footage. This contemporary adaptation of the oldest known animation technique memorializes today’s chaotic environments in a more meditative medium, turning transience into artifact and compressing a chaotic past, present, and future into a suspended, luminous state.
Throughlines: Times Square (2025, Projection, Acrylic on PLA; ~13" x 23" x 1.25", 00:01:56)
Throughlines: NYC Subway (2025, Projection, Acrylic on PLA; ~14" x 25" x 1.25", 00:1:47)
Throughlines: Central Park (2025, Projection, Acrylic on PLA; ~12" x 23.5" x 1.25", 00:01:00)
