Steve Tobin

Steve Tobin
Born	1957 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nationality	American
Education	Studied math and physics, B.S., 1979
Alma mater	Tulane University
Notable work	Trinity Root bronze sculpture (2005)
Website	https://stevetobin.com/

Steve Tobin (born 1957, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)^[1] is an American sculptor. Newsweek heralded Tobin's artistic mission "to make people look at natural objects in new ways". ^[2]

He studied theoretical mathematics at Tulane University, graduating with a B.S. in 1979,^[3] and works from a studio/foundry in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.^[4] His works have included an igloo fashioned from the windows of M60 Patton combat tanks, and glass cocoons that he hung in a chapel in Antwerp.^[4]

In 1993, he created an installation at Retretti in Punkaharju, Finland, an art museum in a series of artificial caves. He filled the caves with tall, "totemic" glass sculptures, and created a "waterfall" from strands of glass. After the exhibition, he ceased to work with glass, stating later that "I retired from glass because I could never top what I did at Retretti".^[4]

Five years later, he gave a show at Fuller Museum of Art in Massachusetts featuring bronze castings of Ghanaian termite mounds; he had become interested in Ghana after having an assistant from the country.^[4] In 2002, the Page Museum in Los Angeles gave an exhibition of his work titled "Tobin's Naked Earth: Nature as Sculpture", beside the La Brea Tar Pits. The show included the termite mound castings, a metal casting of the root system of a tree, and a sculpture fashioned from bone marrow.^[5]

In 2005, Tobin installed what is perhaps his best known work, Trinity Root, originally placed at St. Paul's Chapel in Lower Manhattan, New York City. During the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the chapel had been partly shielded from damage by a 70-year-old sycamore tree. He created a bronze sculpture of the tree's stump and roots, which were shown in front of the church on the corner of Wall Street and Broadway. Tobin was already working with roots "The function for me of roots is to show the power of the unseen," he said. "And on 9/11 we found out about the power of all of our unseen connections, the things that nurture us that are hidden below the surface."^[6]

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum has a Trinity Root large-scale model on permanent display ^[7]. The Trinity Root was highlighted by Chief Curator Ramirez as “striking not only for its ambitious scale and engineering virtuosity but also because of the tree’s presentation as something other than terrestrial branches, foliage, and woody surfaces. Instead, Tobin monumentalized the [...] stump and once-concealed, skeletal roots. The choice provokes questions that seem to transcend the tree’s predicament, inviting reflection on the source of civilization’s endurance and weaknesses; of humankind’s capacity for cooperation and goodwill as well as for inflicting pain and injustices on one another.” ^[8]. For more than a decade, Tobin also worked with exploding small charges in blocks of clay and then firing the results, some of which were featured at the Payne Gallery of Moravian College.^[9]

In 2016, Tobin was the featured artist in Shanghai, China for the Sixth Annual Jing’An International Sculpture Project (JISP) Expo. His studio shipped 48 bronze and steel sculptures for the installation, including several from his monumental Steel Roots Series. Tobin's sculptures were sited at several places around the city of Shanghai, including in front of the Shanghai Natural History Museum and at Jing’An Sculpture Park.^[10]