LINNEA STERTE

Linnea Sterte shows her control of storytelling and visual language in Stages of Rot, a slow and deliberate work. It’s expertly constructed to provide enough details to understand the world and leaving enough so that your imagination fills in the gaps. It’s almost world building by omission. For instance, we know the hunters who killed the whale did so for a purpose, but we never truly learn what it was or see the aftermath of that. The elements are familiar, hunters are slaying an animal, the specifics are new and foreign, but we understand the ideas brought forward. Sterte focuses on specific elements and that works particularly well to make her world feel truly otherworldly.