Living Lines took a journey, reflected on it, struggled through it, and represented every aspect of that journey in the film. Originally commissioned for Independents Biennial 2025, the film, performance and land art project was meant to be an initial exploration of new art forms, by an artist who knew her subject, but sought new ways to represent it.
What transpired was a year of barriers which could have stopped everything, but instead, made something so much stronger.
The opening frames of the film are overlaid with email exchanges with the National Trust, preventing simple, small-crew filming projects from celebrating and highlighting their space, in favour of big-budget commercial projects that would, on paper, have a negative impact on the place they’re filmed.
That’s important here, because the film focuses on ecology and respect for the earth. When the main barrier was an assumedly like-minded organisation, for reasons that went against the project’s specific ethos, that takes on a whole new life.
Living Lines was proposed as a series of land-art performances, filmed for posterity, exploring the relationship between Stephanie Trujillo’s own Peruvian ancestry, her Peruvian-German heritage, and how the pagan roots of UK society reflect Peruvian tradition – specifically Nazca lines.
In physical terms, the artist takes inspiration from Nazca lines to ceremonially honour local wildlife in sand, leaves and stone, directly referencing the form of Nazca lines, but without the permanence.
Thanks to a dedicated crew, who felt every setback as deeply as the artist, this project grew into a beautiful short film, exploring all of the originally proposed themes or environmental destruction, earthen respect, and personal heritage.
But it also became a poignant reminder of how and why artists do what they do. Not because its sensible, but because it’s motivated by a deep desire to represent something meaningful. You can’t turn that off, and Living Lines is proof of that.
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Living Lines can be viewed in the Digital Window Gallery at Open Eye Gallery until 29th March 2026
Read more at www.openeye.org.uk/whatson/living-lines
Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith
