JEFFREY RUBINOFF Selected photographs 2015 Jeffrey Rubinoff: Selected Sculpture Photographs 2015

Author and Photographer Jeffrey Rubinoff © Jeffrey Rubinoff unless otherwise noted

Editing and Layout Karun M. Koernig

Published in Canada. © The Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park All Rights Reserved.

To obtain reproduction permission, please contact the publisher: The Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park, 2750 Shingle Spit Road, Hornby Island, British Columbia V0R 1Z0 www.rubinoffsculpturepark.org [email protected]

Photos on pages 28 and 32 are courtesy of Dr. Annette Becker, and on page 61 of Karuna M. Koernig. The front cover photo is courtesy of David Lawless, and the back cover photo courtesy of Melba Dalsin.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Rubinoff, Jeffrey, 1945- [. Selections] Jeffrey Rubinoff : selected sculpture photographs 2015 / photos by Jeffrey Rubinoff ; editing and layout by Karun M. Koernig.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-9917154-4-2 (paperback)

1. Rubinoff, Jeffrey, 1945-. 2. Sculpture, Canadian--British Columbia--20th century. 3. Sculpture, Canadian--British Columbia-- 21st century. 4. Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park (B.C.)--Pictorial works. I. Koernig, Karun M., 1975-, editor II. Title.

NB249.R82A4 2015 730.92 C2015-904551-7 In 1973 Rubinoff purchased an 200-acre former rekindle the historical spirit of . In farm on Hornby Island, off the west coast of addition to viewing the work, which includes British Columbia, Canada, for the eventual the Sculpture Park itself, the goal is to revive establishment of The Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture the interdisciplinary creative impetus of early Park. Living and working on site for nearly modernism and to attain the understanding of four decades, Rubinoff created over a hundred art as a serious and credible source of special sculptures, fabricating each piece alone in his insight for the evolution of ideas.” studio from COR-TEN or stainless steel. Located in the former barn, Rubinoff’s studio is uniquely In 2009 the Park launched its ongoing concert equipped with a one-man steel foundry, which series with compositions selected for their made it possible to cast the spheres in series mastery of counterpoint. Beginning with Bach 5, and the complex shapes seen in series 6 and Beethoven, the concerts are a bridge from through 8. the comprehension of aural counterpoint, to the perception of visual counterpoint. This In addition to creating the pieces themselves, connection is key to understanding Rubinoff’s Rubinoff carried out significant landscaping work, as he sees “sculpture as music in plastic projects to reshape the land to compliment the space, and music as sculpture in elastic space.” sculpture. Over the years, the sculptures were sited and photographed by Rubinoff with careful The photos presented here are of sculptures attention to how they work in counterpoint to completed by Rubinoff from 1981 to 2012. The the natural environment, as well as each other. sculptures are presented in the order of their creation, to emphasize the evolutionary nature In December 2005, The Jeffrey Rubinoff of the artist’s working method. Unless otherwise Sculpture Park was officially established “to noted, all of the following photographs were advance education in the arts by preserving the taken by the artist himself. sculpture collection created by Jeffrey Rubinoff and making it available for the enjoyment and Rubinoff states that several historical insights education of art students and the general public.” evolved with and from his sculpture work. Over following years the infrastructure of the These can be found on page 70. His work park was established, including the construction changed significantly with the sixth series, and of a multi-purpose building for educational and he provides a useful Introduction to Series 6 on interpretive activities. page 75. A brief biography on the artist can be found on page 76. For more information on In May of 2008, the park was formally opened Jeffrey Rubinoff, his work and the Sculpture to the public with the Inaugural Forum. This Park, please see www.rubinoffsculpturepark.org. initiated an annual forum series to host scholars interested in discussing Rubinoff’s work and RIGHT: Aerial view of ideas. The forums contribute to what Rubinoff Series 6 – Andromeda 5 (1993) states is an aim of his work; “to extend the ancient narrative of art and consequently NEXT PAGE: Aerial view of the Sculpture Park. Denman Island and Vancouver Island are visible in the background. 2 3 4 5 LEFT: Aerial view of upper portion of the Sculpture Park and of works in Series 2, 7, 4 and 6, in receding order from the viewer.

View from Mt. Geoffrey of the Sculpture Park and Lambert Channel between Denman and Hornby Islands

6 7 Aerial view of Series 8 – 4 (2002), 8 – 2 (2000), and 8–3 (2001), from top to bottom.

Aerial view of lower portion of the Sculpture Park and of works in Series 3, 5, 6 and 4, in receding order from the viewer.

8 9 Aerial view of Series 4 – 14 (1986)

Aerial view of Series 4 – 4 (1984) and 4 – 6 (1984)

10 11 Aerial view of works in Series 8, 2, 6 and 7, in receding order from the viewer.

12 13 Series 1 – 1 (1981) RIGHT Series 1 – 3 (1981)

14 15 Series 1 – 5 (1981)

Series 1 – 7 (1982)

16 17 LEFT Series 2 – 1 (1982)

Series 2 – 3 (1982)

18 19 RIGHT Series 2 – 5 (1983)

Series 2 – 4 (1983)

20 21 RIGHT Series 3 – 3 (1983)

Series 3 – 1 (1983)

22 23 LEFT: Series 3 – 8 (1983)

Series 3 – 9 (1983)

24 25 RIGHT: Series 4 – 2 (1983)

Series 4 – 1 (1983)

26 27 LEFT: Detail of Series 4 – 5 (1984) Photo by Annette Becker

Series 4 – 5 (1984)

28 29 RIGHT: Series 4 – 10 (1985)

Series 4 – 6 (1984)

30 31 LEFT: Detail of Series 4 – 11 (1985) Photo by Annette Becker

Series 4 – 11 (1985)

32 33 Series 4 – 13 (1986) Series 4 – 14 (1986)

34 35 LEFT: Series 4 – 15 (1986)

Series 4 – 16 (1986)

36 37 Series Series 5 – 3 5 – 5 (1987) (1988)

38 39 Series Series 5 – 7 5 – 12 (1988) (1989)

40 41 Series 5 – 14 (1989)

Series 5 – 13 (1989)

42 43 LEFT: Series 5 – 15 (1989)

Series 5 – 16 (1989)

44 45 Series Series 6 – 5 – 17 Burgess 2 (1989) (1990)

See page 75 for Rubinoff’s introduction to Series 6.

46 47 RIGHT PAGE Series 6 – Cleo 2 (1990)

LEFT PAGE Series 6 – Xeno 3 (1991)

48 49 RIGHT PAGE Series 6 – Nike of Baghdad (1991)

Series 6 – Desert Storm (1991)

50 51 Series 6 – Andromeda 3 (1993)

Series 6 – Andromeda 2 (1992)

52 53 Series 6 – Andromeda 7 (1994)

Series 6 – Andromeda 5 (1993)

54 55 Series 6 – Andromeda 8 (1994)

Series 6 – Heigir (1995)

56 57 Series 6 – Series 7 – Shield of Hunter 3 Marella (1997) (1996)

58 59 RIGHT PAGE Detail of Series 7 – Hunter 2 (1996) Photo by Karun Koernig

Series 7 – Hunter 2 (1996)

60 61 Series 8 – 1 (2000) Series 8 – 2 (2000)

62 63 Series 8 – 3 (2001)

Series 8 – 4 (2002)

64 65 RIGHT Series 9 – 1 (2010)

Series 8 – 7 (2007)

66 67 LEFT: Series 9 – 2 (2011)

Series 9 – 3 (2012)

68 69 THE INSIGHTS THAT EVOLVED WITH AND FROM THE WORK OF JEFFREY RUBINOFF

by Jeffrey Rubinoff

Tribalism

Tribal behaviour is an ancient evolutionary trait. Security and continuity, rationalized by the Resurgent Tribalism As nation-states recognize the potential sui- By defnition, a human tribe recognizes descent need for predictable food production, origi- cide of all-out war, the danger is that extant from a common ancestor. From this recogni- nate specialized political, civil, religious, and Agriculture not only failed to supplant tribal- tribalism can continue to trigger genocide, tion, rules of membership are created. As military institutions. Institutionalizing a war- ism, it extended tribalism through periods of and continue the attempt to draw modernist populations grow and genetic distance evolves, rior class was the most dangerous necessity technological development. As agricultural and nations into apocalyptic confrontation. the tribe becomes wholly metaphorical. of this social sea-change. If the military were civil practices advanced, continuously larger not directed outward, it would threaten the populations could be supported, and larger At the metaphorical level, tribalism is realized stability of the non-military institutions. Thus, a armies with more sophisticated weapons in religion, nationalism, and racism. constant state of war became inevitable, and deployed. The Importance of the History of Science indeed the history of city-states and empires The history of the universe is the collec- Tribal myths of origin are distributive memo- appears to confrm perpetual states of war. From the Renaissance through the mid-20th ries of existence that substantiate the rules century, Europe led the world to modernity, tive memory of the universe. The science of that separate tribes. The feasibility of escalating war has become scientifcally and technologically, warring end- cosmology probes the limits of what we can absurd with the advent of strategic bombing lessly in ancient and re-invented tribal rivalries. know of the collective memory. At the root of and nuclear weapons. No military institutions Finally, much of Europe lay in smouldering science is the simple idea that there can be a can claim to guarantee security of territory. ruins bearing the moral degradation of the methodology by which intelligent people can The End of the Age of Agriculture Holocaust: mass theft and murder precisely agree on what they observe and, as a corol- Moreover, at the end of the age of agricul- organized and recorded by collaborating mod- lary, agree to disagree without murdering each The domestication of animals is believed to ture only a minute fraction of the population ern states. other. Science itself evolved in the West as a have begun 13,000 years ago. However, with is required to produce the current surpluses necessity for stopping the ongoing murder- crop cultivation beginning 9,000-10,000 years of food. Thus the fundamental assumptions of The culmination of World War II was the pro- ous tribal wars lodged in separate arguments ago, a large majority of the population was the age of agriculture—security of territory foundly ironic gift of nuclear weapons, given about divine truth and divine favour. Science is required to be bound to the land. Cultivation as the means to secure food production— to us by science. With the reality of mutually a process that creates conventions of truth. It is led to the frst continuously settled villages and must be revised to apply to the era of global assured destruction (MAD) becoming the the process that itself must be either accepted to civilization itself. vulnerability. ongoing policy of the nuclear-armed nations, or denied. Necessarily, to accept science is to modernity would have to adapt to a balance accept the process that has led to the scientifc of terror if the human experiment were to concept of evolution. The evolution of life is survive.

70 71 the collective memory of life on our planet, predecessor as his point of departure. The Humanism and Integration convention. Like original art, the highest pur- and it determines what, at any point in history, artist who follows that history then possesses pose of leadership is to serve the evolution of we are capable of knowing of the collective the chart for evolution, which he in his turn is In a post-agricultural age, political territories human consciousness. memory of the universe. obliged to extend to his successors. can no longer promise security. Globalization demands a common basis of understanding In its turn, art history is one strand wrapped and action over both geographic and ide- around the historic cable of Modernism. ational space. Humanism is the conceptual Evolution of Mind Evolution thread with which to weave this common understanding. Evolution of mind results from the dynamic Evolution is directional and progresses to engagement of truth with both analogy and ever more complex and adapted orders of Carryovers from Modernism metaphor. organization. to the Post-agricultural Age1 Cultivated Ignorance Science has created conventions for truth by Quite elegantly, the concept is constantly There are important carryovers from using analogies to model material reality. For evolving rigorously validated evidence of itself. Modernism to the articulation of human val- The easy view that truth is only subjective much of their history, artists have been bound As rigorously validated evidence expands the ues for a post-agricultural age. leads to cultural lethargy. This view of reality by their innate analogical ability to portray idea of evolution, the human mind itself can does not represent ideas but opinions. These external reality. By science externalizing mod- evolve, thereby contributing to the collective Modernism addressed the entire social spec- opinions are merely a means to intellectual els of underlying structures of material reality, memory of life itself. Arguably, the theory of trum implied by the evolving history of science, and moral conformity, and to the avoidance and photography replacing the demand for evolution supports the concept of the poten- including natural history, which continues to of the effort required by independent thought. illustration, art has been liberated to address tial value of all humanity, as opposed to theistic yield evidence of important biological drivers For some, there is just a cessation of growth, the internal, intuitive reality of the collective or other rationalizations for the ascendancy of of human behaviour. for others a deliberate security of stasis. human memory. specifc tribes. However, the acceptance of the history of Analogies are tools, and as such they are science by Modernism doesn’t imply accep- accepted conventions; they are by their nature tance of blind biological determinism. Indeed, Leadership repeatable, measurable, and predictable. Importance of the History of Art that conscience is manifest in all societies Metaphors exist beyond logic in the realm points to the likelihood that it is genetic in The highly successful in any feld are the mas- of intuition; they are the basis for truly origi- Art is the map of the human soul; each origi- origin. Conscience, as well as violent upheaval, ters of convention. In marketing, they are also nal thought and are by their nature unique. nal piece is proof of the journey. As the artist can be a prime mover of cultural evolution. the masters of the conventional. Learning from Metaphors are self-contained truth, and they navigates the unknown, his art adds to the col- Modernism was, by its nature, progressive, original art, true leadership is the quality to cannot be used as analogies. lective memory. valuing the ability and effort to envision and navigate beyond the boundaries of convention effect a conscionable future. and to return with the charts of the newly The artist’s journey on the path of art his- explored. Leaders as navigators continu- tory takes him to the farthest reaches of his ally return to a vision beyond the horizon of 1 Revised by Jeffrey Rubinoff in December, 2011

72 73 A New Humanism of the Enlightenment in the West, this system INTRODUCTION TO SERIES 6 Beyond Prescriptive Narrative2 remained extant through the terrible resur- gence in the 20th century, until it was fnally by Jeffrey Rubinoff The social relationships necessitated and main- and abruptly ended among technologically tained by the advent of agriculture have been advanced nations by the deterrence of nuclear a central component of structuring human war. I have taken a much larger view of history, one innocent and guilty of the most destructive society for over 10,000 years. Seriously con- that contains more mysteries and spirituality crimes that lead to the most magnifcent cre- sidered, the concept of the End of the Age of Art provides a means to experience the than any tribal mythology that harbors divine ations. Without life there is no witness to this Agriculture is highly consequential and requires sacred beyond prescriptive narrative. favor at its center. (I regard tribalism not as a awesome and terrifying creative unfolding of a deeply thoughtful and thorough re-exami- genetic inevitability but as a cultural pathogen.) the universe. nation of the essential assumptions of our Prescriptive narrative will continue to yield institutions and their evolutionary direction. ethical as well as analogical solutions for spe- Eventually, ‘On the Origin of Species’ became As far as we know, we fragile humans are the cifcally identifed localized systems. a handbook for creativity in the studio. Few of only fully cognizant witnesses. With this capa- A philosophy based on our evidentiary knowl- the people that I know have actually read it bility comes the great responsibility of this edge of evolution and our consequential place However, a new philosophy for the End of the but instead have read others’ interpretations. knowledge. This responsibility is a priori in in nature can provide a basis for the develop- Age of Agriculture cannot overcome tribalism Darwin has thus been commonly misrepre- those who are born artists. The act of will that ment of the order of consciousness necessary if it attempts to become a universal prescrip- sented from ‘cultural Darwinism’ to eugenics, I describe in my defnition of art is the act of to overcome the virulent metaphorical forms tive narrative. and through the ultimate tribal theft and mur- witnessing and recording this knowledge. This of tribalism such as racism, nationalism, and der of the Holocaust. is the highest of human values—the recogni- religion. Overcoming this socially atavistic, dan- Judgments made with the weight of individ- tion of the value of life itself. Therein resides gerous reliance is exigent, given the advent of ual conscience encourage the evolution of Reading it in detail (1872 edition) is crucial the mature conscience. This is the essence of nuclear weapons. consciousness and reduce our atavistic depen- to reconciling the restless nature of creativity our being. Art is the map of the human soul. dence on ideologies and other dogma. We and the apparent restiveness of history. All that Modern humans have evidently demonstrated have learned in our recent history that there exists is in the unforgiving forward direction Evolution in time will continue with or without a deep historical sense of awe manifested in are times when individual conscience must of time and the nature of that existence cre- human existence. Progress will remain—inex- perception of the sublime and the sacred. overwhelm group moral certainty. atively reshaping history. orable and unrelenting—even if we manage to destroy our necessary environment and perish Tribalism—metaphorically transformed and Nature, by the passage of time and by the in a nuclear winter. Art is the authentic inter- self-infated by myths of monopolized divine genetic sculpting of life has created a history nal scream against the suicidal nature of our favour—thrived through the Age of Agriculture These insights were frst presented at the that is a crushingly honest and constantly rooted tribal culture. by prescriptive narrative. Prescriptive narrative, Company of Ideas Inaugural Forum at The Jeffrey probing the future. It is thus simultaneously so used, perpetuated the rule and continuous Rubinoff Sculpture Park held May 3-4th, 2008. reward system of the warrior class. In spite Changes and additions were made in 2009 and 2011 as indicated.

2 Added by Jeffrey Rubinoff in 2009, revised in 2011

74 75 ABOUT JEFFREY RUBINOFF the later series. In addition to the sculpture, Rubinoff has designed many landscape altera- Jeffrey Rubinoff studied Fine Art in the tions that have reshaped the farm to suit the United States and completed his MFA in exhibition of his sculpture. 1969. Subsequently, he returned to Canada to pursue his artistic career, which included During the 1990s Rubinoff focused on histori- one-man shows at The (Helen) Mazelow cal group exhibitions, including David Smith, Gallery , The Ontario Science Center Anthony Caro, Alexander Calder, Nancy Toronto, The Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park Graves, Mark di Suvero, Tony Smith, George Chicago, Queen’s Park Toronto, York University Rickey, , and Robert Murray. Toronto, and Two Sculptors New York. With regard to the predominant art of his In the early 1970s, Rubinoff moved to a 200- time, Rubinoff has stated: “For my generation acre farm on Hornby Island, living and working of artists, culture was defned by marketing. The on-site for the next four decades to create art market defned originality as novelty. I real- the majority of his work. His works range ized that to make original art with artistic depth I from human to monumental scale, and are would have to return to the lineage of the ances- created exclusively from welded and cast tors—the history of art by artists. So began a Cor-ten or stainless steel. Rubinoff creates dialogue with the ancestors, artist to artist via the all his sculptures unassisted, and his studio work itself.”1 includes a one-man steel foundry, which makes it possible to cast the organic forms found in 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Rubinoff

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