Lucy Stein

Image 1 – (photo) Lucy Stein and Shana Moulton performing a ritual for St Ia, with ceramic tiles, eggs and cabbages as part of “The Wise Wound” with Tate St Ives. (photo: Ian Kingsnorth)

Lucy Stein’s work builds on an engagement with British modernist painting, ideas around “genius loci” (or, spirit of place), feminist performance and women’s “confessional” literature. Her work ranges from painting to performance and film. Personal history and art history are given equal significance, and a mimetic relationship binds the female body to the landscape.

Stein was at Porthmeor Studio 5 from January – September 2015, for much of this period as part of the Tate St Ives Artist Programme. Her residency embraced both painting and a steady flow of public facing activity ranging from talks and film screenings to performance rehearsals in the studio. This culminated in a new performance work The Wise Wound in June 2015, a collaboration with artists, musicians and others, which explored the concept of the underwater woman and ideas around female sexuality in relation to the sea.