October Ladders 1974

Christopher Wilmarth made this sculpture, October Ladders, from laminated glass and wire. Wilmarth’s art has this fragile feeling about it, like he’s coaxing light and form into existence. I can imagine him carefully building up the layers of glass, feeling his way through a process of trial and error, always sensitive to the subtle shifts in tone and texture. The dark segment on the side is like a shadow, a solid grounding for the ethereal lightness of the milky glass beside it. And that wire hanging down? It's like a plumb line, giving a sense of gravity and suspension. Wilmarth created a body of work which is all about light, shadow, and the poetics of space. It's as if he’s inviting us to contemplate the very essence of seeing, thinking, and feeling. His art is a quiet reminder that in art, as in life, meaning is something we create together.