Sunday 2nd of March 2014 – Goluboviedros
These are geometric shapes created by my deceased father, the Professor and architect Jayme Kerbel Golubov. He talks about them in this video: ‘Goluboviedros‘
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all photos by Marcelo Barbosa
My father, Jaime Kerbel Golubov, died in 1997, sometime in August. I happened to be in Brazil at the time, in Rio (he lived in Brasilia) but never made the trip to Brasilia to see him, I was still angry at him for his continued absence in my life since childhood. My aunt said I should really go and see him but I was young and stubborn. I wish I had, with hindsight.
I did see him before I left to come to England. We had a chat in his car, and I remember his words ‘Lots of Brazilians end up doing horrible jobs in England’, he didn’t think I should come here. I did some low skilled jobs: cleaning, waitressing, clothes shop… I’m really glad I did them, I learned quite a lot of from them, and they were actually good jobs. The kind of job a young person could and should do. I certainly got fit from doing them. Sitting on a desk for the last 15 years has done my back no favours.
What a cool guy he was: architect, mathematician, professor and artist. His parents were Jewish, his family had fled from somewhere in the USSR (I was told Ukraine and also Russia, not sure) possibly during the revolution in 1917 but maybe earlier or later – I don’t know. They settled in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. So that’s that side of our family and where Golubov (and Kerbel) comes from – I wish I knew more about them. Unfortunately we had very little contact and I was told very little – I have no memory of meeting my paternal grandparents. I learned some bits and bobs when I was contacted by a family solicitor regarding my inheritance from him and from my grandmother Rosa Kerbel Golubov, but still, no one seems to know much. They did own property and land in Rio, some of it appropriated by Petrobras, and these cases of compensation for land appropriation are still ongoing, decades on!
The only bio I can find for my father on the internet is this:
The font ANACOM__.TTF, as well as the project itself, was conceived from the extensive work of Prof. Jaime Kerbel Golubov of Universidade de Brasília (UnB). His work in the earlier 90’s with patterns generated from combinatory analysis of basic elements was taken from the most simple geometrical figures (square and triangle) .
The generator principles of his work were also developed by the artist Athos Bulcão, being known internationally as one of the greatest artists of his time. The splendor of his works may be seen in several buildings in Brasília, in the rest of the country and abroad.
The work philosophy had as a starting point certain religious/philosophycal/mathematical elements from several cultures: Yin/Yang gave the black/white contrast bipolarity; the images of the square and the triangle deriving from the diagonals based on the principles of Kabbalah; the disposing in great panels perfectly ordered but with random appearance of Chaos Theory and Fractals. The results, originally hand-made by Prof. Golubov, were enormous drawings of intrincated patterns which, when, exposed to the public, evoqued different emotional reactions. This gave me the idea of studying about the psychological correlation with the algorithms, the rythm and symmetry they made (or the lack of these elements).
Unfortunately, Prof. Golubov died before we could have a deeper talk about these psychological studies and, being one of his students, I decided to carry on these studies of aesthetical experiments. The natural decurrence was the addition of the circular elements in quarter of circles, negative and positives, following the original bipolarity line. The result of this experimental retake was summarized in the font here exposed, to divulgate and incite new experiments in Art.
The combinations generated “by feeling” by Athos Bulcão and the ones generated from the algorithms were taken as a base for a more extense work. The objective of this work is not only the ludic aspect of the panel preparing, but also the verification of the Congenital Mathematics (*), which I believe is inherent to all humans.
The algorithms are still under development; some are already available in the program page.
There are also some links to his sculptures, but they’re in Portuguese… He taught at the Universidade de Brasilia (UNB) and had sculptures there, as he was around Brasilia at the time the city was being built. In fact my mum and him met while they were students (one of the first) at UNB. Both studied architecture, but he was a few years older than she was. I hope to go back to Brasilia again soon and take you with me, it’s an amazing place, I’m so very glad I was born and spent a few very happy years of my childhood in there.
He died young, 59 years old, I believe he was, but he suffered from life style diabetes, and was a chain smoker. When I lived with him (age 6-7) he got taken to hospital once, as he also had mental health issues, but I don’t know what they were, I never saw anything that stood out when I lived with him. It was also when I lived with them that Arthur Aquino Golubov, my half brother, was born.
http://catiagd.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/jayme-kerbel-golubov.html
Some poetry of his, about Geometry, from ‘Goluboviedros‘ video.
Eu não sei se você consegue captar
a importância de uma matéria
que transforma o sonho e a fantasia em realidade …A Geometria parece mulher …
é aquele negócio que você se aproxima
e que é absolutamente incompreensível …mas que com um pouco da inteligência que o amor dá
você vai ver que não é bem assim …É como se eu pudesse botar as duas pernas
uma em cada margem de um rio
e através de cada pé sentir as respostas
de cada margem do rio …O amor é uma forma de inteligência
e contrabalanceado com a paixão
pode te dar uma estrutura harmônica …Porque o conhecimento é um mergulho …
Entra no mar …
pra ver se a água não te leva todo …O encantamento é absolutamente necessário …
porque é desse encantamento que vai se gerar a necessidade
do domínio desse universo …Não há busca do conhecimento sem paixão …
Nunca ninguém buscou o conhecimento de uma coisa pela qual não
estivesse apaixonado …
I made backup copies of these videos, just in case:
Originals were found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHS1q3yS3ec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw6-lsq8Jso