In “The Past Calling” (2025), Ryan McNurney breaks from his commercial work and opens a time capsule into an at once familiar, but also vast and sensorily confrontative world. Here the viewer reflects on a time that feels so long ago and yet is still very much a living part of the collective memory of our cities, neighborhoods, cultures and shared experiences.

McNurney documents payphones in an incredibly observant way, showcasing the personification of an inanimate and ordinary object through its unique characteristics and surroundings. At first glance the works seem like calming vestiges: fragments from a time before cell phones. Each work becomes a portrait through this collection, capturing a heroic character story within a particular context; backgrounds, street names, details and neighbors – both of the people and object variety change while the immediately recognizable communication icon at the center dexterously adapts.

These artist entitled, “miniature fortresses” are endearing even in their tough, all weather industrial housings. They are also hidden in plain sight. If you saw one today, you’d likely walk by it unnoticed even though they’re a bit of a rarity now and often plastered with stickers, tagged with graffiti, have unique facades and enclosures, are in various stages of disrepair, sometimes sitting alone or sometimes found in a group. There’s a grittiness to their perseverance and ever presence.

That grit gives the viewer something to clench in their teeth as the vortex of time travel continues flashing by. Stories that were once passed through these devices, sometimes even on a collect call, become vivid memories of once forgotten moments. Synapses are firing; senses are ignited. One can recall picking up a plastic handset, hearing the sound of the dial tone, slipping change into the coin slot, punching in the number using concave, etched, metal buttons and fidgeting with the steel cord. The sight of bright lights from trucks passing in the night at a rest stop in the rain flashes while waiting for the response on the other end of the line. Was it familiar? Friendly? Annoyed? Half-asleep?

These stalwart soldiers have witnessed countless drunk dials, 9-1-1 calls, ride requests, announcements from hospitals, calls to home from the road, “anonymous” callers, cameos in movies and TV shows, and plenty more. The viewer vs the participant is flipped and then back again.

After the arresting memory of using these community objects settles, the viewer is taken back to the calming landscape scenes on display. The seeming cross-section of time in various locales transports us to a viewpoint from which we can appreciate the beauty of these once ordinary characters. The journey is complete and we reassess our identity and our place in a new setting. We’re back but we’re different. 

Thus, “The Past Calling” reminds us to hold close what stays with us, especially in the space-time continuum we’re traveling through.