LINDA STEIN’S SCULPTURES – 1989
CORINNE ROBINS
Ceremonial objects, objects that speak of the meaning and mystery of life, objects for spiritual rather than daily use are any and every civilization’s first art. Art is above all founded in mystery, and Linda Stein’s sculptures which speak of tools, of tree branches, of curving forms caught up in the round of time, speak to all of us who stare up in wonder at the shining cycles of the moon. These works belong to an invented tribe, and were designed for use in religious ceremonies celebrating the need to live in rhythm with the land. Stein’s pieces that echo the forms of tools, of scythes and scimitars, are instruments of bone and stone, pieces made to be extensions of the hand suggesting the rhythm of bodies in step with the earth. Linda Stein’s atavistic scepters, fused with magnesium, copper, aluminum and brass, are made for ruling in the afterlife, for recalling the dead and, in their opening, curbing twisting from the wall, are full of the energy of growth and life, are works of poetry and regeneration.