Robbie “Double B” Moser-Saito
"Robbie “Double B” Moser-Saito (he/him) is a ceramist currently based in Boston. He is an undergraduate student in Tufts University’s combined degree program with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, majoring in psychology and studio art and minoring in child studies and human development. His work primarily reckons with the psychosocial impacts of maneuvering the world as a trans person, through abstract and intuitive building in the unpredictable medium that is clay. Catharsis and oddity are constant throughlines. This summer, he is beginning a position as ceramics instructor at the Brookline Arts Center."
How did your relationship with art and artistic expression begin?
I have family from Japan so I grew up really into anime and manga. I was inspired by its pursuit of revealing the truths of life through abstractions of it that looked cool and pretty; that were funny and deep. In elementary school, I would draw pictures of Dragon Ball Z characters and sell them to my classmates for a quarter. So an eager and nerdy beginning! The commissions got pretty lucrative after some time, so my teachers prohibited them, but I kept drawing. In retrospect, I’m glad about that because making art with intrinsic motivation always feels best.
What kind of process went into organizing the works you submitted to “CURATED SELF”? What were some of your biggest considerations with this project?
The fountain piece I have in the show is part of a larger series I’ve been doing, which I’ve been referring to as the BOY ORGAN series. I started off with smaller, static, abstract sculptures that I used to explore gender dysphoria as something that made me unable to understand what value I held, or what I even looked like, both in cisnormative spaces and in interpersonal/intimate relationships. To me, they’re non-gendered. As for the fountains, they have a more gender maximalist approach, through combining traditionally feminine qualities with traditionally masculine ones. The fountains are more celebratory and self-deterministic, being that they are kinetic works that are made of modular parts and make sense both within and outside of their environments. The core condition of living as a trans person is the curation of self. The tension and drama comes through in the dilemma of whether to curate in a way that mirrors cisnormativity, or in a way that deviates from it. Both things are forms of survival. The ethos of Curated Self really parallels what I was exploring with the fountain and I was happy to see it fit so well with all the other lovely curated selves in the show.
The writing piece was made separate from the BOY ORGAN series, but it’s made up of the same things. I use sculpting to process trauma and what’s beautiful about it is that there are no words required, but I started writing poetry recently because I felt like I was missing out on the liberation of speaking and being explicitly confrontational with my thoughts. I’ve been coming to understand more fully that the social trauma that comes with being transgender goes beyond stigma and bigotry, and has bled into the most unassuming parts of my life. My biggest consideration is how to make work about gender identity while taking an approach that’s more psychological, and less rhetorical because it feels disingenuous to superimpose structure onto my experience which is foggy, disorganized, and conflicting. I think that with identity-based work, there’s often a pressure on the artist to spell it out for the viewer. I work both representationally and abstractly, but I feel more at home with ambiguity because I can evade that kind of pandering while simultaneously giving viewers an opportunity to project things that are meaningful to them onto my work.
How were you introduced to your craft and how has your interest evolved since then?
I took a 3D media class my junior year of high school, which wasn’t the first time I touched clay but it was the first time I got more formally introduced to ceramics. The school was a magnet school for the arts, and everything I learned before sculpture came fairly easily to me. We did wheel throwing, though, which I was awful at. This really frustrated me—my teacher pointed out to me that I was only frustrated because I wasn’t used to having to work hard to acquire an artistic skill, and that frustrated me even more. So I put in more studio hours, partially because I thought ceramics were neat but mainly because her statement stuck with me, and I thought harder about the value of using art to build self esteem instead of using it to build ego. Clay is something that tests my patience, gives me something to fidget with, and forgives me when forgiveness is merited. Before making ceramic work, I had a really perfectionist standpoint towards my art and myself, but in my current process I find the most joy in failing big and exploring things that are messy and ugly and flawed.
If you had to sum up a message/lesson behind your recent work in one sentence, what would it be?
Although they intersect, history and memory are two different things, and neither is more true or important than the other.
What is “ART” to you?
I view art as any record of human experience—which is never too big or too small—that doesn’t exist with the pursuit of unjust power over people or things. Lots of art is a record of pain and suffering, but I think that art is not truly made if there is new suffering at the expense of its creation.
What has been the most challenging part of your journey as an artist? And what has been the most rewarding?
The most challenging part is definitely the balance between desiring horizontal systems of power and celebrating my individuality as an artist. The way things are set up, there is a culture of celebritization and self-commodification that doesn’t always resonate with me and gives me a great deal of anxiety. The sweet spot is the most rewarding; there’s so much joy to be found in the heterogeneity of expression, and so much to be learned from it.
What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring artist?
Understand your own goals and values so that you know who to ask what things. Otherwise, it’s easy to get bogged down by advice and critique that isn’t productive for you! The world of art exists as multiple things and the path to success is not one-size-fits-all.
Where do you see yourself in the next few years?
Working towards my current goal of becoming a licensed art therapist while maintaining a studio practice.
What are three things that you would want the BAC community to know about you?
My favorite shape is the circle, I love collecting treasures of nature like rocks and seashells, and my biggest artistic inspiration is Robert Smith from the Cure!
What is next for you? Where can people find you?
Here! I’m teaching ceramics at the Brookline Arts Center starting in the summer, which I’m so excited for. I’m also still chipping away at my psychology and studio art degrees at SMFA & Tufts, so I’m prioritizing my studies at the moment. I post my work online—primarily Instagram—but I’ve been conservative about it lately, to maintain a personal relationship with my art.
