I am interested in using the ladder as a metaphor for an imperfect vision of linear social progress toward a better future. I am also interested in butterflies as symbols of beauty, transformation, and impermanence. For "Brooklyn Utopias" I created a site-specific piece incorporating a vintage wooden ladder that the Old Stone House has graciously offered to donate. The ladder is surrounded by myriad butterfly cutouts, whose wings are comprised of collaged imagery representing different visions for Brooklyn's past, present, and future. Source material ranges from grandiose plans for the future (i.e. the Atlantic Yards development, or free universal health care for all) to tables with hard data (i.e., crime statistics in different Brooklyn neighborhoods) to personal, subjective visions (i.e., a friend's love poem to the Brooklyn neighborhood in which she grew up).

- Eduardo Alexander Rabel