Thoughts On: Climbing the Ladder
The ladder suggests upward movement. It’s one of those phrases that Americans know… right off the bat. There’s a suggestion that all you need to do is keep moving upward to achieve success. Upward mobility. Moving on up. Pulling up by the bootstraps. Achievement is something that comes at the top. Ladders have a top and a bottom, and no one wants to get stuck at the bottom.
To climb or move up the ladder means to advance in some way through an established system. It’s strictly hierarchical by design. Point A to Point B. The idea is that you progress through the ranks (or rungs) and move into a higher position. On the ladder, this is literal. In practice, it comes with new titles, promotions, benefits, perks, or if you’re lucky, underlings. To climb the ladder means to become increasingly more powerful or successful. You need to climb the ladder a bit before you have that level of control. Sometimes we’re talking about the corporate ladder. Now, there’s a suggestion of leadership.
But it’s silly to think of someone leading someone else up a ladder, because there’s really only one pathway, and that’s not really how the corporate ladder works; it’s really only true for actual ladders. It’s all a big metaphor for being above things or people.
Lots of opportunities for word play here. Sometimes words and phrases help us boil down big ideas. That can make complicated things easier to digest. In a literal sense, cooking food helps us digest it more easily. Sometimes we boil things down until all meaning dissolves away and it just becomes a picture in your mind. Like boiling pasta until all the water is gone and then it just turns into mushy goo and then it turns into a dry, crumbly paste and then it starts to burn and it doesn’t even look or taste or act like pasta anymore. But I think there’s still an idea in there. Something about boiling it down.
I like the wordplay between ladder and lateral. Lateral is not like a ladder, that’s moving sideways. But to move up, well that’s LADDERAL. Mhmm. Work your way up. Make headway. Upgrade. Step forward. Move ahead. Now you’re going places.
Think about your career, man! Be ambitious. You’ll need to climb the ladder to get ahead. But don’t forget where you came from. The bottom. The bottom line is, you need to rise to the occasion. You started at the bottom.
Words that relate to ladders and success:
CLIMB
RUNG
RANK
HIGHER
ADVANCE
REACH THE TOP
PROGRESS
GOING PLACES
In the gallery, the artist is the one climbing on the ladder. I am the wall that it leans on. I’m the one supporting you. But in a literal sense, I am the fucking ladder.
To demonstrate this, I will be a professional ladder. A stepping stone to advance your career. A human being to support you on your journey upwards. I will create the structure and my body will offer stability. You can climb me. I’ll be there for you because that’s my fucking job. Purchasing the consequential object is not an option, I have an hourly rate.
MATERIALS
Wood (butternut, yellow heart, tiger wood, purple heart, red oak, mahogany), painted steel, leather.