Larry Weyhand is the artist behind this exhibit
It’s not the first time art and bathrooms run into each other. This time a new exhibit at the Newfoundland and Labrador Craft Council has involved bathrooms and wool.
Larry Weyand, the artist behind this project, called the exhibit All the Baths I Bathed In which consists of two full-sized bathrooms made exclusively of wool. Weyand says he wanted to explore the temporary environment of the bathroom while also creating something fun and fluffy.
“The walls. The bathtub. The toothbrushes. The toilet. The toilet seat. The flusher. Everything inside is rug-hooked”, says Weyand.
“It creates this weird, soft, fluffy space to exist within”.
Weyand took over 8 months to hook the pieces, which were made with approximately 300 skeins of wool. The smallest objects, such as toothbrushes and toilet paper, were all done by hand, while the walls and other bigger pieces were created with a tufting machine, a gun-like tool used for rug-hooking.
The rooms are replicas of his childhood bathrooms, and this work allowed him to explore some of the complex sensations he experienced as a youngster.
“Bathrooms are such a weird domestic space. If you’re not there to relax and take a bath and treat yourself to some sort of mini spa session, they become a space where it’s transitional”, said Weyand.
He had only bathed in six bathrooms when he came up with the concept two years ago, and he wanted to investigate why through this piece.
“You have to be incredibly aware of your body within these spaces. It’s one of the only spaces in the house where the focus is on you, your personal body. And as someone who grapples with body issues or certain ideas about bodies, it was always a space that I never really liked existing in because I had to constantly look at myself”.
Much of Weyand’s work, he claimed, deals with intergenerational trauma. This project allowed him to discuss difficult matters with his family while also assisting him in coming to grips with specific body issues.
“The proof of that is that my bath count had doubled. So now I can safely say I’ve taken baths in about 12 bathrooms, or 13 now”.
While the project holds special value for Weyand, he hopes that visitors of all ages will appreciate the display in any way they see fit: aesthetically, in a deeper way, or both.
“I am putting the onus on the audience. If they want to go in and see the marvel of a rug-hooked bottle of Comet, then they can go in and see a can of Comet. But at the same time, there is a lot of meaning. There is a really great opportunity to have conversations about this and ask yourself, ‘Why bathrooms?'”.
The show is currently on display in the Galley of the Newfoundland and Labrador Craft Council, with plans to move to Halifax later this spring.
Source cbc.ca
