Step Ladder & Standing Man 1996

Editor: Gary Wragg’s "Step Ladder & Standing Man," an acrylic on canvas created in 1996. It’s… chaotic, almost like a memory fading. So many colors pulling you in different directions. What symbols do you see at play in this painting? Curator: "Step Ladder & Standing Man"... Consider the ladder—traditionally, a symbol of ascension, progress, a bridge between worlds, no? But abstracted to this extent, does that symbolism hold, or does it morph? Does it instead evoke a sense of instability? What do you think this says about Wragg’s interpretation? Editor: Instability... Maybe it’s about the futility of striving. Or perhaps the challenge in reaching enlightenment. It isn’t very straightforward, is it? Curator: Indeed. And consider the “Standing Man.” Where do you see the man? Is it obvious, representational? Or is it simply the potentiality of man, the archetypal presence, within the creative act itself? The human spirit striving and building. Wragg's layering hints that the symbols contain each other, almost like nested dolls, always revealing new truths. Editor: The idea of potential is compelling. Now that you point it out, I do sense a human presence here—something very powerful. I wonder how Wragg wants us to interact with those symbols. Curator: This invites us to ponder how we build our own ladders, physically and metaphorically, but even more about why we construct them in the first place. The image is more an offering of reflection than an assertion. And in that sense, a deeply hopeful, if also uneasy, work. Editor: This piece now strikes me as both more challenging and more rewarding than when I first looked at it. Curator: Yes, it leaves you with a profound sense of wanting to strive, yet with more awareness of what it takes to ground that striving.