Laura Stein

Smile Tomato, 1996
chromogenic color photograph 24 x 20 in.
(detail)

Green Pig + Smile on Vine, 1998
chromogenic color photograph 30 x 40 in.

Working with life creates a way for me to explore nature and culture and their dueling influences on our existence. I like to examine the line between cultural imposition and natural development.

In the project Animal-Vegetable, animal-shaped molds are secured over baby vegetables to shape the vegetablesí formal attributes. This creates a disparity between the objectís natural growth cycle and a contrived one. While growing, the vegetables exert their physical strength and frequently attempt to push through the limits of the molds. Some are too strong to be contained, but most conform to the imposed shape. There is an intense will to grow, regardless of whether they submit to or resist their formal fates. Unlike their genetically altered counterparts, individual will has an effect on their development. I view my molds as a culturally generated pressure, an applied norm, which then gets filtered into individually aestheticized interpretations.