In the Reciprocal Ladder series, the utilitarian function and visual form of a ladder has been subverted for aesthetic and metaphorical purposes.

As part of the Art in Odd Places public art festival, this project was performed along the entire east to west length of 14th street in lower Manhattan. My intentions in this project involve subverting the familiar function and metaphor of a ladder, widely seen to symbolically represent upward mobility and the social hierarchy that is established by that perception and understanding. By converting the form of a ladder into a rolling reciprocal structure, a symbolic public action is established emphasizing an alternative egalitarian mode of social organization—presenting a possibility for what a “ladder of success” might look like without a beginning or end, top or bottom.

Steve Rossi

Steve Rossi