Gabriel Barcia-Colombo United States, b. 1982
Escalate, 2026
LCD Monitor, aluminum, rubber, acrylic, 12.5 min loop
33 x 33 x 2 in
83.8 x 83.8 x 5.1 cm
83.8 x 83.8 x 5.1 cm
Edition of 3
Copyright The Artist
Escalate presents a 12.5 minute video featuring New Yorkers “escalating” upward in an endless loop. Beginning with just a few calm travelers, the scene slowly fills until the escalator becomes...
Escalate presents a 12.5 minute video featuring New Yorkers “escalating” upward in an endless loop. Beginning with just a few calm travelers, the scene slowly fills until the escalator becomes a crush of bodies. Where are they going? Are they commuting, migrating, escaping? The work never says. By stripping away all context — no destination, no origin — it turns a familiar piece of urban infrastructure into a meditation on collective movement, ambition, and the strange human experience of ritualistic behavior and movement without progress.