This piece is called ladder for Booker T. Washington, it resembles the life of Booker T. Washington and his hard work towards equality. Puryear has done many pieces from this same sort of theme which resembles his own African American background. The media in this piece is wood specifically ash and maple. One of the very cool things about this piece is the forced perspective that is portrayed when looking at it. It starts out at the bottom looking like a regular ladder but as it reaches higher towards its 36 foot point at the top. When looking at it, it seems as though it reaches much higher eventually out of visibility.
This is an installation piece that he did at Oliver Ranch. This piece is made from large stones found around the area of Oliver ranch and consists of an eighteen foot high stone wall and a large cave like structure on the other side of the wall. What makes this piece interesting and sort of mysterious is the opening to the cave is blocked of by a red cedar arrangement which only allows for little viewing of the interior. This lets the viewer use their imagination as to what could be inside.
He has a minimalistic approach to much of his work but it is through that approach that his creativity is expressed the most.
