Laser-cut wood art by Gabriel Schama dazzles with projection mapping created by Limelight Art

At InfoComm 2024, we showcased “Cathedral of Thieves,” a stunning piece of wood art by Gabriel Schama Studios with content by Limelight, an internationally awarded and world record-breaking digital art design studio, projection mapped onto the art using a Christie HS Series 1DLP^® projector. 

Christie projection maps "Cathedral of Thieves"

We had a chance to catch up with Scott Hallock, Limelight’s managing partner, Americas, about the conception and inspiration behind the project, content development, and the result that attendees at InfoComm experienced. 

The physical meets digital

Based in Budapest, Hungary, Limelight is an artist collective that creates a range of content and experiences, like the content projected onto “Cathedral of Thieves.”  

The partnership between Gabriel Schama and Limelight began long before InfoComm 2024. “Years ago, I worked with Gabriel as his studio manager,” Scott explains. “At the time, a company called Lightform reached out to us about doing real-time projection mapping onto one of Gabriel’s pieces. We created an eight-second video that went mega-viral.” 

Based on the video’s success, Scott and Gabriel began looking for independent artists to work with, which led them to iMapp Bucharest, the biggest video mapping event in the world.  

“We see two different artists at the top of their game, giving their voices to the same piece in ways that neither one of them would have thought to do.” - Scott Hallock

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“I emailed all ten invitees to the festival from that year, and about half of them responded,” says Scott. One of the responses came from the Limelight team. “I hit it off with the team, and that was how the partnership with Limelight and Gabriel began.” 

While Scott still manages Gabriel’s studio, he joined Limelight about six months after the initial collaboration.  

Christie and Limelight come together 

Scott met Joseph Conover, director, live events/immersive experiences, during a project for New York Fashion Week a few years ago. When he saw that Joseph joined Christie, it put us at the top of his mind.  

“I saw that Christie was doing some cool stuff, and we were working on permanent projection mapping requests from clients, so I literally reached out through a form on the website,” Scott says. 

Scott quickly connected with Paul Dumpel, senior channel sales manager, along with a few additional members of the Christie team, and plans to bring “Cathedral of Thieves” to InfoComm 2024 began. 

“Cathedral of Thieves” at InfoComm 2024 

 “Cathedral of Thieves” is a wood-based artwork laser-cut from 13 layers of wood to create an intricate, globally inspired architectural depiction of a cathedral. Measuring 42″ wide by 62″ high, it’s a large canvas that catches the eye as a standalone piece. 

And when combined with projection?  

“There’s such a strong artistic stance of the digital light art. It's really following the artwork itself and enhancing it,” says Scott. The content, which runs over two minutes and is projected onto the artwork using a Christie DWU19-HS 1DLP^®projector, was created by Limelight’s Creative Director Csaba Világosi and Senior Artist Alex Riczkó.

“You'll see certain scenes where the content illuminates the artwork with line art, then moves into places where it transforms the architecture of the piece, dissolves into sand, and finally fills up with smoke. It adds a layer of things that maybe aren't fully there,” Scott says, describing the content. “There's this really beautiful collaboration that happened with this piece. We can see two different artists at the top of their game, giving voice to the same piece in ways that neither one of them would have thought to.”