The relationship of upward motion of the ladder and the background of Booker T. Washington”).Īccording to Puryear, it was “about using the sapling, using the tree” generate an object with an “artificial perspective, a forced perspective, an exaggerated perspective that made it appear to recede into space faster than in fact it does.” Puryear wanted his audience to see and feel that the ladder’s length is infinite to “create a confusion as to whether this is the artist’s manipulation of reality or whether this is in fact what is really going on in real time” (Art 21 Inc, 2007, “Abstraction & “Ladder for Booker T. An ash tree was divided into two to make up the side rails and the maple rungs were used to connect the rails creating a zigzag pattern suspended in the air (Wilson, 2007, “Ladder for Booker T. Washington (page 358 of “A World of Art” by Sayre), the central material used was wood to form a 36-foot tall ladder using the additive process of construction.

In his work entitled Ladder for Booker T. More so, the color black symbolized the African American race while the tear drop-shaped glasses represented the link between the sentiments of Wilson and worldly events (Spalding, 2007, “Re: Making History”).Īnother artist who have made use of sculpture as installation art to express his artistry and ingenuity is Marin Puryear.

He used the “opacity of black glass combined with its fluid sensibility” to show his experiences as well as the history and experiences of the Black community (Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, 2007, “Fred Wilson: Black Like Me”). Wilson is known for his interest in the “personal and introspective manner of exploration of racial and ethnic marginalization in a more” which dictated the purpose and overall theme of Drip, Drop Plop. Meanwhile, the “glass drip forms suggested ‘black tears’ and liquid black flesh” while the addition of the eyes emphasized that these were not mere black objects but they serve as “a metaphor for human degradation and stereotype” (Erickson, 2005, “Respeaking Othello in Fred Wilson’s speak of me as I am”).

Drip, Drop Plop utilized the molding process to shape a glass into sperm-shaped black drops and some were even accented with cartoony human eyes that suggested the influence of Wilson’s childhood experiences.

Examples of three dimensional artwork