Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Aaron Stein

Make no mistake: Aaron Stein loves automobiles. Sure, these “rolling sculptures,” as he calls them, are destroying the environment. But Stein associates them with nostalgia, childhood memories and romance. And he is fascinated with the conflicted roles automobiles play in our cultural imagination. “How can something so influential in the design of the landscape and destructive to the environment have become our way of life?” he asks in an artist statement. His response is to make art. Stein uses old license plates and other reclaimed car parts to build sculptures, furniture and assemblages, all of which make up a show called “Car Dreams” at Burlington’s Frog Hollow through August 31. Pictured: one of Stein’s map sculptures.