by Tony Coates
Walking into the Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery located on the Valdosta State University Campus, audiences will be greeted with a splash of different colors from the “Bearing Witness” gallery installations by Margi Weir. These installations take color and combine everything that is symbolized in modern culture by that color and collage them into one beautifully designed acrylic painted piece. Weir also uses the acrylic paintings to create awareness as well beyond just the colors creating one large piece that is equivalent to 3 of her normal-sized large canvases. Vinyl images merged to create this one stunning piece that is so large it fills up one whole wall of the gallery. This exhibition combines many ideals, so if viewers do not agree with one color and its symbols, there are up to eight colors, including Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black, White, Purple, and Orange, so that everyone can relate to something in this exhibition. The stories and awareness that Weir provides are modern culture. The execution of each piece is very detailed in each work presented.
The piece “Ever Green” created in 2017 showcases everything that the color green has to offer. When I first looked at this work of art, I was very critical looking to see if there was any symbol of the color green that was not represented on the artwork. For the most part, most people would claim that at least 90% of the main iconic symbols that represent the color green was recognized. Each color had a central point to it, and “Ever Green” had a primary point of recycling. Symbols included in the “Ever Green” painting include marijuana, green lights, four-leaf clovers, recycling symbols, snakes, and plants also including words of subjects symbolizing the color green as active boarders. Not every painting included in this exhibition dealt with color; the piece called “Justice in America” is what looks like a 3-part story that fills a complete wall. Each painting is merged by vinyl, which surrounds it like a border, and there are vinyl of a watch post and fences with barbed wire around them to give the symbolization of the border. Each part of the painting has intense detail and symbolism. The picture tells a story, but when the audience steps in closer and looks at each line, they will notice that some of the lines are shredded money. When Weir spoke, she said that she would get shredded money donated to her, and she uses this in her work to also symbolize the fact that the border and jail systems would not function without the money used in them. The three paintings depict jail scenes with outlines of bodies behind the perpendicular and overlapping lines and patterns that symbolize a jail cell. As a viewer, it is noticed that every piece of black in these paintings are reflective. A person can see themself in the piece. Though she primarily is speaking about African Americans in the justice systems in this reflection, reflections average about the height of the body silhouettes, which tells us that no matter who stands before this piece, anyone can end up here.
The exhibition space was very breathable, and there was enough room between each piece to make sure the work did not fight for attention. The gallery layout was just a small piece to the bigger picture of Weirs’ work. As a whole, the artwork brought out an intense depiction of minority problems faced in the past but is very prominent in the modern world still. Having vinyl prints on the wall with ceramic pieces accompanying them of guns with wings on them, but when approached, the viewer realizes that they are not wings but hands with “Don’t Shoot” placed around these visuals. Weirs work portrays gun violence having variations of guns, including pistols and assault rifles, as borders around some of her work representing how guns can keep minorities locked away and caged. The exhibition overall was very emotionally driven and would be a very eye-opening and enlightening site to see if available.
Tony Coates is a Bachelor of Arts student at Valdosta State University. Currently studying graphic design to ultimately break into the user interface design field. He is from Gwinnett County, Georgia, and plans to move to Atlanta after graduation to pursue his career in UI designer.