Living with Contingency: A Reflection on David Robinson’s Exhibition at the Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art
- Zihan (Drew) Tang
- Feb 2
- 5 min read
Edited By Jada Prato
“Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.”–Robert Harris, Conclave
Tension. I thought to myself as I quietly marveled at David Robinson’s sculpture titled Apotheosis (Image 1): suspended above the ground several times his own height between two metal plates arranged in a V-shape formation, a sinewy nude man pulls a taut string upward to himself. The string runs through a pulley system, of which two wheels outside the metal plates redirect the force from the string onto the metal plates so that the plates are drawn toward the figure. This contraption keeps the metal plates from collapsing, thus the figure from falling. However, closer examination reveals an unsettling detail: the string appears to be breaking, which implies the man’s imminent fall. Without providing additional contexts, this nerve-wracking scene depicts a high-stakes dilemma and a potential tragedy as stability in the mechanical system depletes.
David Robinson’s anxiety-inducing sculpture of a doomed struggle is a visual-psychological whiplash, and it materializes the paradoxes of human life into a tangible metaphor. I became fascinated by David Robinson after seeing the exhibition In Medias Res at the Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art during a Hart House Student Art Committee trip to Calgary in October 2025.
Born in Toronto and currently based in Vancouver, Robinson had his early sculpture experiences from carving and molding clay in his family’s backyard as a child. Later during his time at the Ontario College of Art, Robinson was influenced by Canadian figurative sculptor George Boileau, who focuses on pronounced themes of human conditions and the tactility of his sculpture materials. Robinson’s father, Harry Robinson, was a well-known Anglican preacher. Having been raised within the Anglican Church, Robinson often incorporates Christian themes into his sculptures, navigating faith, contingency, and human vulnerability through refined details.
Apotheosis can be interpreted as one such endeavor. Though more secular than Robinson’s earlier works at first glance, the sculpture cleverly deploys physics and mechanics to create psychological weight and deliver a powerful, paradoxical message: an overarching stable human condition is instability. Equilibrium is perhaps only to be broken, and mortals’ powers are constantly strained by their inherent fragility. A person may appear elevated to divinity—a visual reference to the title Apotheosis. Yet, they remain subject to contingency, struggling to maintain the facade of indestructibility and destined to eventually fall, as we see in the thinning string and troubled figure in this sculpture.
Like Apotheosis, much of Robinson’s oeuvre challenges idealized human forms, quietly tearing down the tradition of glorifying the divine, the noble, and the magnificent on a plinth. In the center of the Newzones Gallery stood another set of Robinson’s sculptures arranged in an equilateral triangle, respectively named Dismantling, Veil and Void, and Immemorial (Images 2 to 4). The triad is arranged in an ouroboros-like manner, where the sequence and relations among the sculptures are unspecified, thus giving the viewers complete freedom to interpret the metaphorical significance themselves. Dismantling depicts a nude man kneeling on top of a plinth as he carefully reveals a corner of what is underneath. Veil and Void, in contrast, exudes despair and futility as the same figure leans against the veiled plinth; his limbs stretched and face somber, as if he was anguished by what he saw under the veil.
My favourite piece, perhaps, is Immemorial. Similar to Apotheosis, Immemorial visualizes a predicament: the standing statuette grips the veil in his hand but is unable to pull it away, because the veil is tightly bound to a statue underneath that has a vague outline resembling Christ or the Virgin Mary. I find the subtlety and elegance of Immemorial enthralling. Maybe it is a poignant reminder of how easy it is to lose faith, or it could imply how difficult it is to discover faith in the first place.
The three sculptures have an ambiguous poetic quality to them, almost like three mixed-up scenes from an old film noir reel. The number “3” is an ingenious choice, as the sculptures can only form a single triangular configuration, ensuring their proximity and placing the construction of meaning fully in the hands of the viewer. Moreover, though it might be a numerological coincidence, “3” also corresponds to the Holy Trinity.
Curiously, the figurines in these three sculptures are bronze, which create a stark contrast with the grey, muted tone of the polymer-gypsum plinths and veils. As might have been intended by Robinson, the juxtaposition in colors signals viewers’ attention away from the pedestal to how the figurine interacts with the plinth and the veil. As aforementioned, Robinson’s works accentuate humans’ physical and emotional vulnerability through their actions in difficult situations, shifting the focus away from heroic figures of religious and political authority. In that sense, Robinson’s sculptures could even be considered somewhat iconoclastic.
As I return to my quotidian activities from the visit to the Newzones Gallery, I find myself sometimes gazing at photos of Robinson’s sculptures and contemplating the significance of hope. In photos, these sculptures seem dynamic, tantalizing, and daring. Yet they embody elegance, artistic discipline, and emotional reticence—which sounds just as paradoxical as the very scenes these sculptures depict, and the glimpse of hope they convey.
Robinson appears to me as a silver lining in a postmodern commercial art market plagued by impoverished ideas, self-absorbed performativity, painfully inaccessible symbolisms, and excessive consumerism. His detailed, minimalistic, and thoughtful sculptures (occasionally with wry humor) bring forth vulnerable moments of alienated, agonized, and ascetic-like protagonists in predicaments of distress that only patient viewers would empathize with. Religious or secular, Robinson’s works elegantly encapsulate how humans’ fragility and the contingency of life constantly challenge our faith and hope. Does the string eventually snap and result in the man’s fall in Apotheosis? Does the protagonist in Dismantling, Veil and Void, and Immemorial find faith under the veil, or does he succumb to nihilism in his spiritual struggle? We might never know, and David Robinson probably never intended to give an answer.
What we do know, however, is that through despair and uncertainty, we testify grit and resilience. With artistic integrity and thoughtfulness, David Robinson monumentalizes fleeting moments of human vulnerability and tells us stirring stories about endurance of pain, quivering faith, and strength through his adroit craftsmanship.
Drew Tang is a 3rd year student majoring in Economics. He joined the Hart House Student Art Committee to explore how art creates connections and communities through self-expression, informed dialogue, and emotional resonance. Drew is now serving as the Secretary of the Art Committee. In his free time, he likes browsing through random bookshelves that he finds, savoring (maybe too much) coffee and tea, and watching honestly anything funny or interesting.
Sources
Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art. “David Robinson.” Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art, October 31, 2025. https://newzones.com/david-robinson/.
Whistler Contemporary Gallery. “David Robinson.” Whistler Contemporary Gallery. Accessed January 3, 2026. https://whistlerart.com/artist-david-robinson.
Robinson, David. “Biography.” DAVID ROBINSON. Accessed January 2, 2026. https://www.robinsonstudio.com/about/biography.
Robinson, Harry, Loren Wilkinson, and Maxine Hancock. “Holy Tensio.” CRUX 50, no. 1, 2014. https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.icompendium.com/artistInfo/robinson/biblio/40.pdf?1523562847.
Fuglie, Gordon L. “Levity and Gravity: The Sculpture of David Robinson.” Image, 2016. https://imagejournal.org/article/levity-and-gravity/.
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