46x30x26, 2024
Found on a bank of the Gihon River in Johnson Vermont, a spruce tree was brought down stream from a devastating flood in the area that previous year. Responding to the land surrounding Vermont Studio Center where I was engaged in an artist residency, I was propelled to use this raw material. I felt it paramount to retain the woods’ character, while also attempting to fulfill a primal human need to extend our reach upward. I used the traditional country ladder building process, where I split the truck down the center and used its adjacent narrow branch as the rungs, which descend in either direction. Instead of one long section comprising the ladder, which can evoke a partiality to Pueblo shelter and proximity to the gods, I made two ladders which use balance and tension on either side to maintain its traditional function of supporting weight. However, the tension and balance needed to maintain its function has the capacity to be futile when the body reacting to it has the inherent proclivity to shift, stumble and twitch in erratic ways. The juxtaposition of balance and tension to maintain function with an unstable mass is metaphorical for human nature.
