resurfacing (violoncello duet) 2024

---

In response to the work of Jeffrey Rubinoff and his Sculpture Park on Hornby Island, resurfacing reflects both the vast landscape and the intricate surface details of his sculptures. Rubinoff’s 200-hectare park, opened in 2008, houses over a hundred of his works, all created in his on-site studio until his death in 2017.

Rubinoff believed art should be a necessary sustenance for a mature conscience and a source of knowledge, allowing original perceptions to shape one’s perspective without prescriptive narratives. His work was inspired by counterpoints and continuums, such as the tension between organic and solid shapes and the dialogue between human-made and natural forms. This sense of contrast is not only present in his sculptures but also in the deliberate landscaping of the park—distant tree lines, the Denman Island shoreline, and Strathcona mountain ridges create dynamic counterpoints with the art itself. Rubinoff also explored elastic space, a concept of fluid, evolving spatial relationships, and temporal play, which influenced the park’s design and the spatial-temporal relationships in his art. These macro-level ideas informed the various compositional approaches of this piece.

At the micro level, the Harton drew inspiration from Rubinoffs meticulous finishing techniques, such as sanding and grinding, which created abstract, expressionistic lines on the sculpture surfaces, akin to painterly gestures. These textural details and the broader macro relationships are reflected in the title resurfacing and translated into the composition through bow techniques and timbral variations, capturing both the material textures and the conceptual counterpoints in Rubinoff’s work.

Megan Harton thanks the University of Victoria School of Music and the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park for their support in developing this work.

- Megan Harton (2024)