Looking toward influences that range from the torqued perspectives of American Regionalism to the gravity of Piero della Francesca’s paintings and the monumental figuration of Jose Clemente Orozco’s murals, Weaver’s...
Looking toward influences that range from the torqued perspectives of American Regionalism to the gravity of Piero della Francesca’s paintings and the monumental figuration of Jose Clemente Orozco’s murals, Weaver’s paintings are an exploration of what she terms a “theater of public life.” In Transfer, as with her other street scenes, mundane settings like a sidewalk or a flight of stairs act as a stage upon which interpersonal dynamics and power struggles are played out. This work depicts a crowd of bendy-limbed pedestrians scrambling up a daunting, central staircase—a public site of transfer or exchange—as the female protagonist topples forwards into the picture plane. The sharp pleats of her stylized skirt fan outwards, recalling the teeth of a sawtooth blade and conveying a sense of implicit violence as she is accidentally exposed.