The Founders Pillars is a two-part installation: The Power Loom, a multimedia installation that digitally weaves African textiles, and a site-specific Augmented Reality (AR) experience that uses those very patterns and visualizations to transform the columns of the New York Stock Exchange into a memorial to enslaved peoples.
This project is included in the Tribeca Immersive 2025: In Search of Us exhibition alongside 10 other works
A room-scale installation showcases a life-sized weaving power loom made of cotton threads, which transforms into a dynamic display surface through projection mapping. Visitors are invited to embark on a sensorial journey as images are woven across its fibres. These generated images culminate into the AR experience on the Stock Exchange’s columns, underscoring how the financial district’s prosperity was built on the profits generated from cotton plantations.
Each column is augmented with African textiles from the six distinct regions, morphing into contemporary decolonial representations, brought to life by AI-generated video content. By infusing magical realism into folklore and myths associated with these fabrics, The Founders Pillars disrupts the colonial underpinnings of artificial intelligence, transforming it into a tool for playful expression and freedom-making practices.
