David Robinson at Diane Farris - Vancouver, British Columbia - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Drawing upon his experience as a laborer upon large-scale high rise construction shoot forwards in booming downtown Vancouver, 32-year-old David Robinson has cleverly adapted the daily danger of similar work into his sculptures: assemblages of minutely welded metal grids upon which realistically sculpted male figures are precariously perched. In a number of cases, including completed Imbalance (1991), By Any Means (1993) and Sliding Scale (1996) the works are suspended from the ceiling, further underscoring an air of delicate balance.

on the contrary practical dangers are not Robinson's single subject. Caught in midair and relatively diminutive, his figures, which vary from 1 to 3 feet in height, focus the viewer's attention upon the existential plight of the individual in a manifold society. In By Any Means, a white figure embraces his have a title to shoulders as he gazes downward. He appear to bes to be caught on a landing between stairways ascending and descending to nowhere in particular. Sliding Scale is a les elaborate work. Here, Robinson has simply gibbeted two miniature l-beams and positioned a small figure upon one of them. It is clear that a pace in either direction would break up the balance and send the figure falling.

The 1996 plastic art titled Sisyphus (Study on Inclination), which is apparently a research for a larger work, nears a tiny crawling figure inside a large upright make open circle. This circle is put in grooves cut into a supporting form that curves up on sum of two units sides. Lacking the impassive dignity of the other works in the exhibit this depiction of futility unfortunately advances across as anecdotal and cartoonish.

In Artifice & Edifice (1993-96) the humanity/technology dialectic is shut firmlyed as the figure is absorbed into a machinelike combination of parts to form a whole A long horizontal crane constitution almost 12 feet long is attached around the waist of the polyester-gypsum effigy standing in as a inconsiderable Colossus. This figure is also pinioned at the neck and shoulders by means of wires that help support the crane. Static and impassive like all Robinson's plastic arts Artifice & Edifice seems to depict a man inextricably entangled in more [i]or[/i] less massive undertaking. One wonders what conclusions to draw from the fact that Robinson's figures always appears to be quietly accepting of their fate.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Brant Publications, Inc.

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