In a cyclical narrative of “creation and destruction and the persistent pursuit of production,” Sammy Stein’s Rube Goldberg-esque comic is a postmodernist exercise in serial forms and repetition. [1] Stein is a master of the hook, of the final frame that puts you back on the path you started from, leaving form and narrative suspended in a kind of temporal ouroboros or cannibalistic kinesis.
Stein is part of a school of French Abstract Formalist Comics that experiment in abstract narratives within the structural mechanisms of linearity and progression inherent to the comic book. [2] His signature minimalist, geometric, and graphic style is beautifully risograph printed in pastel pink hues, ombre teals, and rich ochres. Clearly in reference to an ‘80s aesthetic derived from Italian Memphis design, Moving Sculpture 2 also pays homage to the retro sci-fi comic—it even features its molecular monstrosity on a pull-out holographic playing card.
[1] Kim Jooha, “Sammy Stein on the Art/ifacts of the Real and the Virtual,” The Comics Journal, http://www.tcj.com/sammy-stein-on-the-art-ifacts-of-the-real-and-the-virtual/ [2] Ibid