By Christian Perry
Valdosta State University’s Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery has opened up a new exhibition, called “Bearing Witness”, showcasing Margi Weir’s social political artworks. The show officially opened on the 17th of February and will end on March 6th. The artworks collectively shed light on subjects from social injustice to eco-sustainability. Weir’s works show the violence of these problems in the form of beautiful visuals, and it is evident that she has a passion to voice her concerns for these subject matters.
The overall gallery space is very open with the artworks only occupying the wall space. The middle of the floor is empty, and recently has seen the addition of benches for viewers to sit down. This was a good choice because all of the artworks needed a considerable amount of room for viewers to see the works from a distance. There was an equal distance between each of the artworks, giving them separation from each other. None of the artworks felt crowded on the wall. Instead, there was enough breathing room between all of the artworks which allows the viewer to focus on one work at a time.
The body of work on the wall to the right of the entrance, “Justice in America”, is actually four different compositions that have been combined through the use of large-scale vinyl stickers. They are acrylic paintings on plexiglass, giving it a reflective effect. It is beautiful to see the reflection from the black backed plexiglass contrasting with the reflection from the applied paint. The positive spaces with the layered paint create different varieties of reflections that give the overall work texture.
The most striking aspect of this work is the subject matter. The first composition that is closest to the entrance, “Don’t Shoot Gun Birds”, is a collection of bird’s silhouettes. This work of art is a work of its own; however, Weir ties this into “Justice in America”. The birds are very similar to “Justice in America”, making the combined composition cohesive. What stands out is the abstraction of the birds, which are recognizable as guns with wings. This emphasizes the gun violence that Weir witnessed in her life, which is the influence for this composition. The all-black color of the birds convinces that they are vultures. It is almost contradictory that these vultures are abstracted to look like guns, since we all know that vultures only prey on anything dead. It is almost as if Weirs is suggesting something about the harm of guns, especially if possessed by someone hungry for the potential outcome of gun violence. It may also be interpreted as a symbol of corruption. Vultures are not capable of killing their meals, so they rely on nature to provide for them. Keeping this in mind, what if the prey represented guilty suspects? Weir could be hinting that the court system is the vulture. If the vultures were able to pick and choose which suspect to shoot down, they have the power to throw any identity behind bars. The corruption of the court system is the content being exposed in this work.
The content of “Don’t Shoot Gun Birds” ties into the theme of Justice in America. To the left of the birds is a composition that tells the true stories of refugee children being separated from their parents. Weir was a resident of New Mexico, where she had been concerned about the building of a border wall. A sense of fear and anger affected her to make this recent work. At first glance, many would think that the painting was depicting a prison, but once you find out it is a camp for refugee children, anger consumes us. Each work includes minimal color palettes, containing no more than four different colors. Within the artwork, there are repetitive forms, giving the composition a pattern in large areas. The repeating forms are mostly human figures showing hopelessness through their body language. Text can be located on the perimeter, which usually indicates what the piece is trying to speak to us about. The vinyl stickers have the role of turning all of the artworks into a panorama of what we can see from the perspective of Weir. The vinyl represents long wire fences that surround the camp. Through this body of work, we can see that these subjects are victimized in this situation. Unfair treatment of innocent kids does not add up to humanity in this world.
The next composition is bordered with text that reads, “imprisonment without trial”. This goes back to the corruption of the system that Weir witnessed in New Mexico. Our fate was ultimately decided by the color of your skin. Near the bottom of this composition, Weir used repetition of geometric figures that represent black prisoners. The top of the composition is also filled with repeating black figures, but the identity of the figures are white men who are dressed in all black. They also appear to be holding a weapon which indicates the real criminals that are getting away because their skin color is the last that the public officials would consider as suspect.
On the other side of the gallery, Politics of Hue, each painting is representing different political views about a certain color. Weir includes both good and bad images that are connected to each color. Similar to “Justice in America”, all of these are painted onto plexiglass, which gives them a very glossy finish. Vinyl stickers wrap the paintings, again, to establish a middle ground between the picture plane and the wall of the gallery. Each of these works exhibits a variety of different issues in social politics today. The green hue represents the sustainability of this world. In “Ever Green”, there are many symbols that represent sustainability and the planet. The recycling symbol is repeated four times at the bottom of the composition. There are also trees and flowers that can be found. Contrasting images included are traffic signals, which represent cars and pollution. The texts written in the painting create tension on this subject. For example, the text “every green” located beneath the recycling symbol is contrasted with the texts “offshore drilling”. Even the imagery of the oil drilling rigs in blue contrasts with the black frog underneath. Analogous colors unify all of the images, yet the meaning of each symbol allows us to differentiate what is good and bad. We are aware of the dangers that come with oil drilling. For example, on April 20, 2010, the world witnessed an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that affected wildlife and economics. Countless animals were killed in this accident, some washing up the shores of the gulf. Deep sea eco-systems were also affected as the oil sunk to the bottom of the ocean. A lesson learned from this incident is how oil industries are not sustainable for the world, and Weir wants her viewers to feel the conflict between the dangerous business and the beautiful ecosystems in the world.
These subject matters are part of the reality that we live in. They create real fear and anger in some people, and for Margi Weir, creative research became an outlet for her to create these bodies of art. Although she has no intention of changing peoples’ minds, this is her way of expressing these emotions. In doing so, she created a beautiful collection that is noticed by people. Her message is spreading to each individual viewer.
Christian Perry, currently a senior at Valdosta State University, is pursuing a Bachelors of Arts degree. He intends to become a graphic designer after graduating.