Name/TitleThe Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein
MakerStein, Linda
Maker RoleArtist
MakerHobbs Thompson, Margot
Maker RoleEditor
About this objectPublication titled 'The Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein', produced to accompany the exhibition of the same name. The exhibition was curated by Christina M. Penn-Goetsch, who states that Stein "continues to explore the body as a narrative text with a decidedly carnal material. Stein's goals and forms - leather-wrapped, powerful Michelangelo-inspired torsos - deliberately challenge binary assumptions that underlie sexism. These assumptions can leave battle scars that mark the body and record a history on leather that functions as human skin. Stein's leather-clad warriors carry the evidence of past wounds as their very wardrobe and expose the colonization of the gendered body while providing a model for a new superhero in the twenty-first century."
The publication features colour photographs of Linda Stein's work and includes a travelling exhibition checklist, essay titled 'Gladiators, Amazons, and Superheroes: Gender and the Recent Work of Linda Stein' by Christina M. Penn-Goetsch, end notes and abridged biographical notes.
Fully digitised (32 pages)
Medium and MaterialsOrganic, paper
MeasurementsH: 278 x W: 214 mm
Date Made2010
Period2010s
Place MadeUSA, New York
Publication Date2010
Publication PlaceUSA, New York
Subject and Association Descriptionhttps://shophawt.com/shop/the-fluidity-of-gender:
This catalog has been created for the thirteen-year traveling exhibit called 'The Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein,’ which visited 30 venues from 2010 to 2022. The essay by Dr. Christina M. Penn-Goetsch describes the historical influences on Stein's sculpture, as well as the implications regarding gender and empowerment. It highlights the 1940s comic book superhero, Wonder Woman, and addresses her search for Justice and Peace. A must-read for those contemplating the latest phenomenon of evolving sex roles and body-image identity.
https://www.lindastein.com/artist-statement:
For more than five decades, my work has addressed issues of persecution and protection, focusing on oppression of the “other” through the lens of anti-bullying and social justice.
Becoming cognizant of the arc of this work came slowly to me, beginning a year after running for an entire day from the falling Twin Towers in the Ground Zero area of Manhattan. It was only after being “displaced” from my Tribeca home for almost a year after 9/11, that I came to reflect upon my recurring childhood nightmares of being chased by victimizers, and running for safety. (I later created a video, RUNNING, highlighting this flight from villains).
My abstract work after 9/11 became figurative, armor-like, and I realized that I was creating visual and visceral symbols of protection, androgynous sentinel-like figures to stand guard against the foe. I gradually incorporated a family of pop-culture and religious icons (Wonder Woman, Princess Mononoke, Lisbeth Salander, Lady Gaga, Storm and Nausicaa) that could start conversations about issues of power and vulnerability.
Gradually I was drawn to the Holocaust and then to global displacement in which factors of power and vulnerability led to genocide. I developed an artistic craving to start a dialogue with my viewer about what it takes to be a hero – an upstander rather than a bystander – on an everyday basis.
I dipped into my childhood experiences with Sexism and Masculinities/Femininities and played with unexpected gender permutations in Gender Scrambling. With my lectures, performances, videos, as well as HAWT's educational interactive website and national team of scholars, I find myself getting so excited when a viewer or participant has an epiphany which expands Protector behavior or empathy toward the Other.
This is what my work is about.
Subject and Association KeywordsContemporary art
Subject and Association Keywordssocial justice, equality
Subject and Association Keywordsgender & sexuality
Subject and Association KeywordsBody image
Subject and Association KeywordsFashion - clothing
Object TypeBooklet
ISBN/ISSN978-0-9790762-2-0
Object numberGWL-2023-9-6
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved