Robé, TX

Closing Reception Friday SEPT 9th evening from 6 to 8+ pm

The exhibition is open August 19th until September 10th. Regular gallery hours are 12 to 5 pm @ NE SCULPTURE | Gallery Factory

"First You Must Believe" (the Robé collection) is a collaboration between Xavier Tavera and Bobby Marines that took place in Robstown, TX from December 6th to December 12th, 2021.

With a meticulous approach they were able to document (photograph, draw) Bobby Marines’ hometown, its buildings, its landscapes and its inhabitants.

Robé
Jarring streets, slow driving cars,
two or three kids riding fast on bicycles chased by dogs or ducks.
Potholes slowing everyone down to a reachable pace.

Train tracks cut across town with the occasional detour onto the brown bodies roaming by.

Piles of debris every other house,
like a memory of what once was or an eroded statement of attempted progress
Overgrown grass, chain-link fences, diseased palm trees.
Discarded furniture, discarded cars, discarded dogs.
Discarded people surrounded by cotton but forced to walk on caliche.

Whisper of entropy, days pass like the inertia of a dream you can’t quite remember.

Then the sun rises, and the sun goes down.

Inside of homes the sun warms the soul like the first cup of café in the morning.
The smell of homemade tortillas and fresh pastries waft through the air,
carrying the optimism of a new day.

Family photos of better times fill the walls of bedrooms and albums and fil1 Tupperware boxes. Loteria cards stacked find their way out on to the dinner table like old family documents and laugh-
ter erupts from la cocina.

Life streams throughout the house to the rhythm of Tejano music.
Some find their place at the dinner table,
some sit cozily alongside each other en la sala,
others catch up sitting on the porch while watching the children venture tirelessly around the yard.

Everyone is there. Everyone is welcome.
La prima, el primo, el tío, las tías, el vecino, all family, all one.

All wanting to belong.