The Temporal Block Toy is a visual aid that demonstrates how to craft a looping narrative by repeatedly offsetting a subject’s storyline, causing it to continuously interact with itself in the past and future.

The subject, in this case, is the block toy itself, and only when several are placed in a row and staggered in time do we see a new overarching narrative emerge: a never-ending marble run built from different moments of the same timeline. This time-traveling looping structure is used in many of Shapiro’s past works, the first of which dates back to 2020.

An allusion to the repeating nature of life and the inevitable emergence of new generations, the Temporal Block Toy aims to metaphorize the unstoppable march of time as a simple child’s toy, paying homage to the story of humanity and the individual lives from which it is formed.

The Temporal Block toy has been fitted with a simple timer to make it easier to understand how it progresses. Each track segment is numbered to indicate the time at which it is featured in the 16 second story. By following a single block toy, the viewer gains new understanding for how it fits within the marble’s journey.