Elisha Rubinoff has been working with wood for decades. His artworks are surprising and do not look like anything specific, do not describe anything from life as we know it. They originate from what is organic and familiar, then continue beyond into “otherness.” The works have no interface with practicality: they are art stretching out into the future, offering new possibilities, breaking through the limits of the known.

Rubinoff sculpts the wooden objects by hand. Viewers may try to identify the sculptures as belonging to flora or fauna, or perhaps the depths of the sea. The object remains enigmatic as viewers are drawn to its beauty, to the lace-like technique of carving in layers into the wood, sometimes integrating additional materials and infrequently adding color.

The saying “Nature speaks for itself” is only half-true. Nature “speaks” but does so through people and numerous cultural systems and translations. Elisha’s works are not anthropocentric: humans are not their focus, but objects, which enable a blend. The wooden sculptures look like different categories welded together, such as furniture, animals, clothing, or instruments. They seem alive, but not in the way we are used to identifying. When we try to clarify their nature, it seems they have intelligence and intention, with built-in extraterritorial character. A “chimera” is a category of organisms created from genetically engineered hybrids, the word originating from ancient Greek mythology. Over time it became the general category of fictional creatures whose body is comprised from typical limbs of several different species. What Elisha does with the material is a kind of chimera that he takes to an extreme, new hybridization of biology and culture, live and inanimate. 

The new object brings the viewer face to face with the uncanny, a Freudian term for something that seems familiar but strange. The result is discomfort – the viewer senses attraction and recoil – an added essential character of the works.

Elisha’s sculptures seem to float, hardly holding on to the ground, evoking flight, a breeze, and transparencies. The various elements are connected but often one piece may envelop, penetrate, or wound the other, possessing potential for violence. They are balanced precariously, almost impossibly, with a delicate connection to terra firma. The viewer feels a sensation of being a voyeur, peeking at the innards of something unnameable. 

The works are seductively beautiful, enabling viewers to “think outside the box,” to see “the other” as equals and perhaps ourselves as well. We encounter an object, a non-human sculpture with its own intelligence, which makes us think about ourselves. The sculptures seem deep and mysterious which is why they have no titles but only numbers, so that viewers can let their imagination roam.

“As a self-taught artist coming to the field with ‘fresh eyes,’ I am aware of the advantage of making art that is not influenced by any discourse, art group or institution, or overexposure. The series is fundamentally opposed to dichotomy, rises above and beyond issues of the division between art and craft and between artist and craftsman. Inspiration arrives from various worlds of content, some from fantasy and futurism, others are biology and engineering. I draw from what exists and imagine the future while enabling the areas to drift into each other.

“I acquired and honed my technical skills for decades. Since I was a boy, I have been curious about machines which I took apart then rebuilt their operating systems. At home, I was exposed to my mother’s embroidery, lace and crochet works. As a teenager, I tried wood carving and turning. My years of working in England for a company preserving and restoring ancient wooden buildings enabled me to study the manual carving of masters of wood. In my studio, I make my own art and also train generations of people who love wood and love to work in wood.”

Elisha Rubinoff (b. 1966)

Efi Gen, Keren Weisshaus