GEORGE VERGETTE, "The Waning Light," September 6 – 29, 2007, Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver
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"The Waning Light, 2007"
George Vergette, "The Waning Light, 2007," coyote, glass tubing, neon gas, transformer, electrical wiring, anodized aluminum, resin, nylon cord.
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"Study for a Unique Structure #11" and "Study for a Unique Structure #11"
George Vergette (from left), "Study for a Unique Structure #11, 2007, plaster, styrene, music wire, cotton thread, corian, wood; "Study for a Unique Structure #11," 2007, plaster, styrene, music wire, cotton thread, corian.
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"Perspective #1," "Perspective #2," and "Reason Alone is Sufficient Enough to Govern a Rational Creature"
George Vergette (from left), "Perspective #1," 2007, variation in resin and plaster on panel; "Reason Alone is Sufficient Enough to Govern a Rational Creature," 2007, deer, fiber glass, gel coat, plaster, styrene, music wire, cotton thread, wood, corian, bondo; "Perspective #2," 2007, silkscreen ink on rag paper.
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"Fugitive Material #1, #2, #3" and "Perspective #2"
George Vergette (from left), "Fugitive Material #1," 2007, ptarmigan, resin, wood, acrylic, steel, powder coat; "Fugitive Material #2," 2007, ptarmigan, resin, plaster, cheescloth, steel, powder coat; "Fugitive Material #3," 2007, pigeon, resin, plaster, cheesecloth, steel, powder coat; "Perspective #2" - Variation in anodized aluminum with bullet holes, anodized aluminum.
GEORGE VERGETTE, The Waning Light
Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver
September 6 – 29, 2007
By Beverly Cramp
George Vergette is known for creating mixed media panels that are made luminous by his expert use of resin. The application of many layers, often over bits of acrylic- or oil-painted text, produces a sense of depth. Vergette’s latest mixed media show at Bjornson Kajiwara gallery in Vancouver, The Waning Light, works with maquettes and found objects, bringing together past technique and introducing forays into new territory. The show is alive with notions of nature and man.
The work titled Perspective #2 – variation in anodized aluminum with bullet holes is shot through the upper right hand quarter. On its own,Perspective #2 is cold and dark but, hung near a grouping of other works, together they act as a set piece with broader meaning and perspective.
The other pieces include two silkscreens with the word “flee” in white against a black background — a mixed media piece with a stuffed deer cut in half, with each half mounted on a wood base and the inside of each half revealing a white cavernous interior that contains one of Vergette’s maquettes (titled Reason Alone is Sufficient Enough to Govern a Rational Creature), and a small black resin panel. The five pieces together say much about man’s relationship with nature.
Vergette places stuffed animals in four mixed media works, covering them in clear resin, as if encased in ice. There are three pieces with resin-coated birds sitting on plastic stands suspended from the wall, titled Fugitive #1,Fugitive #2 and Fugitive #3. The resin preserves the birds, but can also be seen as a smothering shroud.
A stuffed squirrel is part of a different series of maquettes, called Study for a Unique Structure #10. The squirrel’s back is covered in melted wax-like resin, with compositions reminiscent of an architect’s model, an idea for a built society literally superimposed on nature.
The tranquility of Vergette’s exquisite resin panels with text, such as Wane, gives viewers some relief in the midst of the darkness, but even Wane has a cautionary note. Floating at the forefront of the blue resin-layered panel is the word ‘waning’ printed in white letters. Behind the white lettering, in the background layers of resin and printed in shadowy text, is the same word from Perspective #1 and Perspective #2: flee.