The essence of humanity is intrinsic to Barbara Edelstein’s very life force. She is a master of earthly elements, working in various mediums: sculpture, installations, drawing, and multimedia to express the tangible, interactive elements of life. Edelstein’s works provoke us to listen—to recall our instincts. With a focus on wind, earth, and water, she lets nature be her scribe; it is Barbara Edelstein who is pulled and woven by the paper, water, inks and metals with which she works.

Life is much like a tree, being a mirror of the simplest form of life. One of her latest sculptures, Elemental Spring: Harmony, recently  installed at the Jing’an International Sculpture Garden, is a piece of particular resonation. To create this piece, Edelstein wove copper and bronze and, once set, allowed the structure to be washed and carried by water into reconstruction. It is not a sculpture. It is an organism given to nature. Each tree parallels a human life, with roots and leaves and generation. Each piece has an evolution, a cycle, just like our own. Whether in sculpture, video or drawing, Edelstein’s works are a tribute to the essence of life and what should be.

In her Leaf Book series, Edelstein has interwoven life’s true elements and constructed a powerful symbol of life’s cycle and the breadth of nature. The viewer is invited to participate in a dialogue: to turn the individually unique copper leaves and thus with nature communicate. As viewers, we are turned by the very leaves we handle. We are compelled by the work to let go and to surrender to the same overwhelming natural force that inspires Edelstein.


BARBARA EDELSTEIN
Artist Statement

Barbara Edelstein, a native of Los Angeles, was exposed to diversity on the two shores of the Pacific in her early years. The geographical proximity and cultural blending of the Asian and the American traditions had a significant impact on her way of thinking, and later cultivated in her a unique style of Zen artistry. Barbara’s artworks continually reflect water as both a concrete material and an abstract concept – a dualism that bridges the natural and the artistic worlds. The flow of water in her artworks communicates a motion that transcends time, an elevation of spirituality, and a delicate form of expression that is the epitome of feminism.

“To me, sculpture is very much a body in space. I see all of my sculptures as relating to the human body and our senses, so that the person is actually there. The object that I create may not physically represent a person, but it is a surrogate for a human body. Therefore, when I am looking at a tree, what I actually see and feel in my body is the tree as a dancer taking a pose.

“I find that as a sculptor, I am drawn to shapes, and I find the contours of leaves so completely varied and amazing. Also, by using leaves from around the world, in my own way I am unifying the world, bringing everyone and everything together into one.”

Barbara Edelstein graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a Bachelor of Arts, and from the Claremont Graduate University with a Masters of Fine Arts. She has exhibited her works in solo exhibitions since 1985. Barbara Edelstein’s works are part of the permanent collections of such esteemed institutions as the National Museum of Women in the Arts of Washington D.C., the Shanghai Art Museum, the Guangdong Museum of Art, the Connemara Conservancy of Dallas, Texas, the Jing’an International Sculpture Park of Shanghai, China, and The Djerassi Foundation of California, among just a few.