Off The Reel - Rod Lathim

“Off The Reel”

Vintage 35mm film reel, neon and vintage wood mold

21” T x 30” W x 9” D

A relic of cinema’s golden age spins into the present in Off the Reel. Built upon a vintage 35mm film reel—once the vessel of flickering dreams and celluloid memories—the sculpture celebrates the physical poetry of film itself. Mounted on a vintage wooden mold, the reel becomes both anchor and launchpad for three looping strands of neon glass that spiral outward into open air, breaking free from the reel’s circular confines.

Each piece of glass glows with kinetic energy, marked every few inches by black lines recalling film sprockets. The light seems to move, as though frames of color were unspooling into infinity. Off the Reel captures the exhilarating moment when story, image, and imagination slip their mechanical boundaries and come alive—an homage to the wonder of cinema and the luminous pulse of creation itself.