Photos courtesy of Radford University

“Two Worlds,” featuring new works by artist Charlie Brouwer, is on display through Sept. 12 at Flossie Martin Gallery. Brouwer has also temporarily placed other sculptures around campus. They can be found in the lobby of Muse Hall, the Fairfax Street entrance to Dalton Hall, the Circulation/Reading Room of McConnell Library and in the sculpture court by Powell Library.

RADFORD -- Like Jacob's ladder seen through the mirrors of a kaleidoscope, a 5-foot-thick wall of ladders reaches from floor to ceiling in Radford University's Flossie Martin Gallery, illustrating man's spiritual journey in sculptor Charlie Brouwer's newest installation.

The exhibit "Two Worlds" opens with a reception Thursday. The ladders bisect the room into equal sections, both of which contain the wood framework of a small house.

Lining the walls are Brouwer's drawings in pencil, crayon and acrylic paint. Mostly black and gray, they also contain ladders and houses, as well as a recurring pilgrim character. Written on the drawings are one-line thoughts, most of which echo a search for enlightenment.

Visually striking and intrinsically metaphoric when seen through the angular web of ladders, Brouwer's "Two Worlds" is a look into the various meanings and modes of transcendence.

"I wanted to create the perception of a wall that you couldn't get through," Brouwer said while comfortably passing through gaps through the wall that can be found upon approach. "And there are two main symbols -- the house, which equals safety and security, and the ladder, which means risk."

Brouwer has used ladders throughout his career and has displayed them in various forms in galleries, outdoor installations and on his 9-acre home in Floyd County. He is interested in their inherent metaphor, their uplifting quality paralleling man's spiritual journey. He wrote, "They reach over, rise up and transcend."

Brouwer references 16th-century painter Albrecht Durer's piece "Melancholia" as a source for inspiration.

"The ladder in this work is symbolic. ... It shows there is something higher, some form of human enterprise that is unfinished," Brouwer said. "It is also of the artist thoughtfully contemplating that aspect of the human condition."

The ladders in this installation were discarded and broken. He found them stored in a barn while picking cherries at the Levering Orchard in Ararat. They have been mended and painted white.

"They could be people, broken and repaired. We all have wounds, and our repairs are what support us," Brouwer said.

Preston Thayer, director of Radford University's art museum, said he is pleased Brouwer chose Radford University to display his newest work.

"I think it transforms the space. We've never had an installation that took over the space so poetically," Thayer said. "Looking through the ladders toward the drawings is a poetic experience. He arrived at the installation through the drawings, and we reverse that process through seeing them through the ladders."

Also awaiting on either end of the ladder wall is the well-lit "home," the second part of "Two Worlds."