Throughout this year’s winter and spring terms, Oregon State University students pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree have curated, hosted and promoted weekly on-campus exhibits of their own artwork at Snell Hall, located across from the Valley Library. Starting today and lasting through Friday, May 27, local “trash display artist” and gallery assistant Robin Weis – whom The Advocate ran an artist profile on last month – will be hosting his own exhibit, titled “Trash Baby”.
In an Instagram post shared by Oregon State University Art, the exhibit is described as interpolating “narratives of interpersonal conflict with the tangible and intangible debris that illuminate Weis’ struggle with finding comfort, home, and security. Trash Baby features painting, sculpture, illustration, and installation that highlight the power and endurance that Weis has found as a queer individual, shredding past selves to form a more perfect whole.”
“Trash Baby draws parallels between forgotten items generated from daily living and the emotional debris that lingers after trauma,” wrote Weis in an artist statement. “Works featured here were crafted as I processed displacement, abandonment, death, and the formation and reformation of my being despite and in reaction to these experiences. Therefore, disjointed depictions of myself frequently appear as they splinter and converge through sculptural, illustrative, and painterly processes that embody articulation or age regression brought about through the cyclical healing process.”
Sneak Peeks
For the remainder of the week, Weis will continue sharing updates and glimpses of what audiences can expect to see at his show on his Instagram page.
Some sneak peeks he has shared with The Advocate include “Point of Entry 2”, an egg sculpture composed of the shredded remnants of Weis’ former artwork that first appeared at the Corvallis Garbage Fest in March; two paintings titled “God’s Reckoning” and “Pressurized”; a red stool saturated with debris; and “Shed Selves”, a display of discarded items that were gifted to him by people who participated in the Benign Inc. interactive installation he hosted in October.
“‘God’s Reckoning’ [focuses] on the shredding of my physical form in order to transition and embrace my relationship with my queer body, and ‘Pressurized’ [is] a painting reflecting on how the pressures of my childhood and external expectations have formed me,” wrote Weis in an email. “The red stool is a stool I have used in my studio classes with pieces of glue shredded on top that have collected the debris from the desks of other students and a danish that I often eat; these reflect on how the influences of those around me serve as their own forms of nourishment.”
Additional pieces that will be featured in the exhibit include illustrations and collages depicting Weis’ experiences as an AFAB (Assigned Female At Birth) person whose bodily autonomy and reproductive health have been violated; experiences with destabilizing living situations like housing and food insecurity; his relationship with his deadname and pre-transition existence; and more.
“Reformation After Trauma”
Recurring in all of Weis’ work are key themes of comfort, compulsive collecting, sadness and trauma, rebirth, and, most notably, healing.
“Trash Baby is primarily about reformation after trauma,” wrote Weis. “I have mimicked my abusive and degrading relationship with my family through my treatment of compiled debris and alcohol-saturated illustration. I am both the trash baby formed from the circumstantial trash of my upbringing and a creator of the trash baby; in this, I am the creator of my own being.”
He continued, “Destruction is a recurring theme, but as is my personal narrative of reformation through the act of my physical transition. Transness, that is the shedding of my physical and metaphysical form to best suit my being’s progression, is a radical act of self-love.”
Weis will discuss his exhibit in more detail in an artist talk that will be held on Wednesday, May 25, both in person at Snell Hall and virtually over Zoom at 5 p.m. You can visit his Instagram page for Zoom information and more detailed shots from the show. Additionally, more of Weis’ artwork – and the artwork of other BFA students – can be viewed at the “Major Arcana” 2022 BFA Graduation Exhibition, which will remain up at the downtown Corvallis museum, located on 411 SW 2nd St, until June 15.
By Emilie Ratcliff
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